Pretty Funny
by haveviolentends
Summary: Can you learn to trust someone again when your life is on the line? - AU, A MaDi story (with a little LoVe thrown in!)
1. The Setup

**AN: I do not own Veronica Mars. I'm sorry for the lack of breaks in the text, Pages hates me. Hope you enjoy! R/R!**

Mac rubbed her sweaty palms against her skirt, grateful for the dark fabric. She checked her blouse again hoping that she wasn't sweating through it. Her handbag knocked nervously against her hip as she took short, quick steps towards the Pi Sig house.

She really couldn't believe she was doing this.

She agreed to go on a date with Dick.

Dick Casablancas: of all the guys she knew he was, hands down, the worst.

However, over the past several months, since the beginning of their sophomore year at Hearst, he'd proved to be something else entirely. She didn't actually believe that people could change, but she wanted to trust him. He'd been so great to her lately: accommodating, kind, gentlemanly, otherwise completely un-Dick like.

He was taking her out tonight, their first "real" date other than playing Halo all night and eating red vines.

Her hands shook do she clasped them together over her bag. She could do this. She could do the regular girl thing and go on a date with Richard Casablancas, Jr.

* * *

><p>"You did it man," Chip smirked as he handed Dick five crisp $100 bills.<p>

Dick leaned back from putting on his shoes. He was actually wearing shoes with laces, dress shoes for his date with Mac. He liked her, he wanted to make a good impression for once in his life, this time actually mattered. If he stopped to think about it for too long, it freaked him out.

"Dude, what are you talking about?" Dick knocked Chip's outstretched hand, the bills falling to the sticky frat house floor.

"Ghostworld. Man, you did it, I didn't actually think you could do it, but you won the bet man."

"The bet?"

"Dude," Chip rolled his eyes and continued, "now's not the time to be modest. Me and Aaron knew you'd take the bet man. Don't forget there's another $500 if you bring back proof that you bedded her, man. I bet she's gonna be one fantastic lay. It's always the quiet ones."

Dick sent his fist into Chip's stomach without thinking. "What the fuck are you talking about, Chip? What fucking bet?"

* * *

><p>Mac ran. She ran as fast as she could down the steps of the Pi Sig house and as fast as legs would carry her through Greek row.<p>

She didn't stop until she made it back to her dorm, throwing open the door, and promptly losing the contents of her stomach all over the cheap area rug that separated her and Parker's side of the room, before sliding down the cold wood door.

She let her head fall to her hands.

"How the fuck did I end up in a 90s teen drama?" she asked the empty room.

She should've known better. What could a girl like her possibly have to offer Dick? How foolish was she to let herself be taken in again by another Casablancas?

She stayed with her back against the door, her butt getting numb against the painted concrete floor. She shivered from the cold and the ache that started to enter her bones. The longer she stayed, the more she grew angry.

"How fucking dare he!" she shouted. Who the fuck did Dick Casablancas think he was? He couldn't do this to her, she was going to make sure he paid for this.

She stood up from the floor and smoothed her hands down skirt. She'd go through with the date. Why not? Dick apparently had $500 to spend and she was more than willing to take advantage of that.

Mac rolled up the ruined rug and vowed to by a new one over the winter break. She grabbed her toothbrush from her bathroom caddy and turned to look at herself in Parker's full length mirror.

"I miss you, Veronica." Mac quietly spoke to her reflection. Her friend had moved away and moved on with her life after the debacle of the sex tape. Mac wished she'd gone with her. Maybe she would. If Ronnie were here, she'd know just what to do.

"Get it together, Mackenzie. You're not going to be ruined by another Casablancas."

* * *

><p>Dick shook his hand, willing the pain to subside. Three of his knuckles were bloody, but he smiled any way thinking of Chip and Aaron's much worse state.<p>

He couldn't fucking believe that these two assholes (and apparently a couple of other assholes) took a bet about him and Mac.

She was not some fly-by-night, one time chick. The more he thought about it, the less he liked the idea of Mac ever being out of his life. It was scary and thrilling all at once. He'd honestly never cared up until this point in his life what anyone thought of him or any of his conquests. But Mac was way more than a conquest.

"Dick?"

He turned quickly, doing a cursory check of his room, it was passable, before setting eyes on Mac.

He stared for a moment, taking her in, feeling like he's never really seen her before. Her skirt and blouse combination is not something he can ever remember her wearing, it was so unlike her. She looked beautiful, but uncomfortable and that's the last thing he wanted.

"Hey Mac," Dick almost whispered. "You look really pretty."

"Thanks," Mac replied solemnly. The usual color that would light her cheeks at a compliment from Dick, noticeably absent.

Dick shoved his hands in his pockets and rocked back on his heels while he watched her. She was twisting her hands around one another, worrying her bottom lip. "Are you okay, Mac? You seem a little out of it?"

She looked so unsure. One thing he'd come to rely on was that his Mac, the one he'd come to know over all these months, was very rarely unsure. He envied her that quality.

"Yeah, it's great. I mean, I'm great, why wouldn't I be? So, should we go?"

"Mac," Dick began walking towards her only to have her take a big step back. Dick stopped and didn't try to advance any more. "Mac, something's wrong. What's going on? Tell me, do you-do you not want to go out tonight, or did I do something? Please just tell me."

Mac laughed bitterly, the half baked scheme she'd been planning for Dick's demise being thrown out the window as her anger returned.

"You. You are my problem, Dick."

Dick nodded as if he expected the answer. "Why?"

"How can you stand there and act all innocent? How could you do this to me?! I thought you actually liked me. I'm so fucking stupid!"

"What on earth are you talking about Mac?"

Mac threw her purse at him since it was the only thing that was close to her reach. "No need to pretend anymore, Richard. I heard what Chip said about your little bet. How lucky for you, I didn't know I could be worth so much. Are you calculating points too? What'll I be worth for sex-quest? Do you get extra points for the 'She's All That' spin? You were so close, too, you almost had me, Dick. Yet another Casablancas pulling a fast one. I mean, god dammit do you get off on wrecking my life?"

"Mac," Dick started slowly, inching his way towards her vibrating frame. "It's not what you think. At all. I would never-"

"Cut the crap, Dick! You got caught, just tell me the truth. This long con you've been playing for months now, and you almost did it, but I ruined by getting here early being excited about this boy that I thought liked me. How foolish of me. I should've known better. The only thing you like is yourself."

"You know me, Mac," Dick pleaded. "I wouldn't do this to you. You know that. I-I truly care about you Mac. I think, I think I might actually love you and if you could just listen-"

Maniacal laughter made Dick pause. Mac's face was splotchy and red, tears running unchecked down her face. She was still vibrating in anger. Now she looked at him with such incredulity that it made his heart start to beat eve faster. Up until this point he thought he could fix it. That this stupid thing would go away. The gravity of the situation was just starting to hit him.

"You love me? You fucking love me, Dick? Do you really think I'm that fucking stupid? Oh my god, you must because you pulled this fast one on me. You made me believe you. You made me trust you. All the stuff you said to me about Cassidy was just for show wasn't it Dick?"

"No!" Dick screamed and pulled at his hair. His chest hurt from how hard his heart was beating as well as that indescribable feeling of total loss all over again. "No, Mac, I swear to God, I swear on my dead brother I did not start to see you as a dare or as I bet. I did it because I like you. Because I fell in love with you and I thought you were starting to feel the same. Please Mac, trust me, you know me. You know me. I wouldn't do this to you."

Mac let the tears pour down her face unchecked. "I don't believe you. How could I believe you? This is right up your alley, Dick. High school asshole Dick, rides again. You must be so proud."

"I'm not that guy anymore, Mac. You know that, why don't you believe me? I've changed. I've changed for you!"

"People don't change," Mac replied flatly. "They just find new ways of working around their old personalities. So what was it really, Dick? Just wanted to complete your brother's reign of torture or was this special for you? Something to remember poor pathetic Cindy Mackenzie by when your time here is through? Your greatest triumph-tricking your dead brother's ex into thinking anyone could find her attractive or desirable? Well congrats," her voice broke at this as she bent in half, pain coursing through her body warring totally with humiliation.

"I swear, Mac, I swear-"

"Shut up Dick. You've had your fun. It's not your fault," her voice was flat again, and somehow it worried Dick more than her shouting at him. "It's my fault for being so stupid. Don't feel bad. Not that you're actually capable of feeling anything, but all the same, don't worry about me. I'll be fine."

Mac crossed towards him and for a moment he was sure she was going to hit him, but she didn't. She bent down to pick up her bag that had fallen at his feet. She stood before him and brushed the tears from her cheeks, wiping her hands on her dark skirt. She stood as tall as she could, anger still pulsating off her in waves. Oh god, she'd have to walk back through the fraternity house, why hadn't she thought of that sooner?

"What's one more humiliation, Cindy?" She whispered to herself.

"Please, please Mac don't leave. Don't go. You have to believe me. It was Chip and Aaron and some other guys. Not me. I didn't take their money. I wouldn't do this to you. You know me, please."

Pain shot through her heart and down her arms, to her hands, and her legs. "You won, Dick. Take your victory lap and leave me alone. I don't ever want to see you again."

"Don't, please Mac. I don't have anything without you. Please. Please I'll do whatever you want me to. Anything, just-you have to believe me. You've got to. Please."

Mac shook her head and wrapped her arms around herself trying desperately to hold it together. She backed slowly from the room and then paused alarmed as Dick moved too.

"Don't follow me, Dick. This is over. This not real thing is over. Go back to screwing sluts and leave me be."

"No," he said firmly. "I'm not going to let you just walk out of my life again. Not again."

"Yes you are," Mac reached into her purse and pulled out her pepper spray, finger on the trigger and aimed at his face. "Leave me alone, Dick. Lose my number, forget my name, don't acknowledge anything about me. Let me live in my humiliation in peace."

As soon as she finished she bolted from the door and was met with loud clapping and jeering from Dick's other housemates.

Her feet beat a familiar path once again from the Pi Sig house to her own dorm. She'd never been so glad to see that pathetic space again. Dick wasn't going to win this. She was not going to be another Casablancas tragedy.


	2. The First Act

**EIGHT YEARS LATER**

The closing of the front door to Mars Investigation startled Mac slightly, but not more so than seeing who came in through the door.

Dick stood before her desk, a large white box in hand, looking as shocked to see her as she was to see him.

"I thought you worked at Kane Software?" Dick blurted.

Mac stared, wondering how he would know such a thing seeing as how she hadn't spoken to Dick directly or indirectly in years, prior to their recent high school reunion. She'd done her utmost to avoid him since then, but apparently having Veronica back in town meant being thrown into company with Dick, again.

The last time, prior to the reunion, that she'd seen Dick, he'd been hurling cruel words at her, loudly, across the quad at Hearst. She ignored all his attempts to talk, and like clockwork, Dick reverted back to getting drunk and telling her she wasn't that fucking special in the first place.

"What do you want, Dick?" She cringed slightly waiting for some dirty, off-hand remark. He'd seemed to be back to his regular, Dick-like, innuendo droppign, twelve-year-old self during the reunion, of course this was prior to Gia's death and she and Cobb's complicity in Carrie's murder, and Logan's frame up. Mac, not for the first time, wondered how Dick could be so completely clueless.

"Uh," Dick began, lifting the box as he did, "Logan had this sent for Ronnie. Don't ask me why he didn't just send it directly to her. I asked him so myself. He said he couldn't send it to her house, but I don't actually believe that. Is she around?"

"She's in with a client."

Dick nodded and held onto the box rocking back on his heels.

"Did you want to drop it off?" Mac asked eager for him to leave the office annoyed with herself that even all these years later, he could make her feel so many things.

"Nah," Dick replied walking over to the deep, comfortable leather couch and taking a seat. "I, uh, I'll wait. I think...well, I'm pretty sure I need to hire Ronnie's services while I'm here. I think I may have a stalker."

"Then you should go to the police, Dick," Mac replied tersely. "What happened? Finally screw the wrong chick, Dick? Tough one."

Mac cringed at the look on Dick's face. So what she hated Dick,that was no excuse for her to act like a total bitch. His friend had recently died, in a violent way, and he'd just found out that some of his closest friends had been lying to him for years. He seemed to be losing people rapidly from his life. A touch of compassion wouldn't kill her.

"Dick, I'm sorry, I shouldn't-"

"Don't worry about it, Mac." Dick interrupted her with a tight smile. "I know you hate me and think as very little of me as possible, so I'm not really surprised you think I deserve this. You probably wouldn't mind if I ended up dead, too, would you?"

Mac gasped and shook her head. "Dick, that's not at all-"

Keith Mar's office door swinging open broke up the tension swelling in the room.

"We'll make sure we get all the information we can on your husband, Mrs. Drooger, that way your attorney has everything you need for your divorce proceedings."

Mrs. Drooger simpered out a low reply, her hands fixing the flawless, mahongany chignon in what Veronica determined to be a nervous habit. She said a low thank you and turned to leave, giving Mac a withering glance before turning her green gaze on Dick, whom she eyed with such unabashed heat that he shrank back into the couch a little.

She left the office, hips twitching seductively throwing a final glance towards Dick before the door clicked with finality.

"Dick," Veronica remarked shortly. "Never a pleasure to see you. Why are you here?"

Dick stood and sighed thrusting the white box at her, nearly dropping it before she could grab it. "From Logan with regards." He turned quickly needing desperately to get out of the range of these two women.

"Wait, Dick," Mac's voice broke into his retreat, "aren't you going to tell Veronica about the stalker?"

"You have a stalker, Dick? Have you gone to the police?" Veronica asked without a hint of that smugness that Mac had displayed. Her face was solemn, no sign of that classic Veronica 'what now' smirk.

"You know as well as I do how useless the Neptune Sheriff's department is. Look, you don't have to pretend to care, Ronnie. It's very clear to me where I stand with the women in this office."

Veronica turned toward Mac and raised an eyebrow at the color infusing Mac's cheeks. Mac swiveled her chair away from the two of them and started to click away at the computer probably writing nonsense.

"You've never been my favorite person, Dick, but you're important to Logan and Logan's important to me, so, come on in."

Dick followed Veronica into her father's office and wondered, not for the first time, how his life got so fucked.

* * *

><p>The return of the infamous Veronica Mars to Neptune, California had done two things to Dick: one, made him watch the LoganVeronica drama again in technicolor and surround sound; and two, thrown him back into the path of Cindy Mackenzie.

She'd all but ignored him during the reunion and the after party at Gia's. Not that he'd expected much, hell, he hadn't planned on seeing her at all, otherwise he would've been better prepared.

He honestly didn't know how he could've prepared, but he would've tried. Seeing her: a thinner, tighter body, short blond-ish hair, so incredibly different from the girl he'd come to love in college.

'Love,' he thought, scoffing at the idea. He'd been infatuated, he'd come to rely on her. Logan had been in the midst of his own Veronica related spiral, and Mac had been his anchor. Looking back maybe he hadn't actually loved her, he needed her. She saved him.

It was a truly unromantic notion.

Now that he found himself in her presence again, all he felt for sure was apprehension. It was clear from their very brief interactions that she held him in the lowest regard possible.

It didn't surprise him, but it did hurt, which surprised him a little.

After that horrible evening years ago he'd tried to get her to understand. Tried to make amends, but anything he did was ignored. Every gesture, returned or annihilated.

Like a coward, she ignored his calls, his emails, everything he tried to do to get in touch with him. She even spent her junior year studying at MIT. And by the time senior year rolled around, the few times she saw him on campus, she acted like she'd never seen him before in her life, until one day he'd had enough. Just who the fuck did she think she was?

"You're nothing, Cindy Mackenzie!" Dick spewed at her one day their senior year as she beat a fast retreat, her bag clutched tightly across her body, head down as if trying to make herself disappear from his view. "You wouldn't have been that great anyway! I don't need my brother's sloppy seconds."

The whispers and snickers around campus after that incident only incited Dick more. He truly hated Cindy Mackenzie. At least that's what he told himself.

As time passed, Dick went back to his old way of living, prior to making friends with his dead brother's ex-girlfriend. He found old high school friends and returned to the Dick of fast living and no responsibilities. He drank more, he partied harder, so much so that he hadn't even been aware of Susan Knight's OD and drowning of her body. He lived life not really caring about consequences, he had money, he could change the outcome of any situation.

But not Cassidy's.

Or Susan's. Or Carrie's. Or Gia's.

He'd almost lost his best friend, again, would've if it hadn't been for the tenacity of one Veronica Mars. Convinced as he was that Veronica was creating conspiracies for the sake of drama, he'd been doubly embarrassed when they'd actually proven to be true. He should've known doubting Ronnie only ever lead to something he didn't want to deal with.

He'd thought Logan was nuts when he told Dick he'd signed up for the Navy, and would be leaving as soon as his last final was taken. Logan had money and all the advantage that came along with having an infamous father, but something changed. A brush too close to death, something he almost couldn't come back from changed him. Logan never told Dick specifically about it, but he knew it had to be significant for Logan to risk his life for God and Country.

What was it going to take to change Dick?

"Why do you think you have a stalker, Dick?" Veronica asked setting the big box down on the credenza behind her father's desk.

Dick took in the petite blonde. Her manner was all business, there didn't seem to be the same hint of revulsion coming off her the same way it did for Mac. The last time Dick had seen Veronica was at Gia's funeral. She'd shown up with Mac, which was surprising because Mac didn't know a thing about Gia, he was almost positive. Logan refused to attend sighting her involvement in his frame up and how he more than likely would never mourn her not just for that, but for taking away Carrie as well, not to mention that Veronica had almost died, again.

Veronica and Gia were never really friends, especially after Veronica proved Gia's father was a pedophile, but Dick supposed being there when someone died bonded you in a way that was inescapable.

None of them spoke that day, but something changed for Dick then.

"Dick?"

Dick snapped back into the moment. "Yeah, I'm pretty sure I do, Ronnie, and given how terrible Neptune is and what's happened to my-"

He paused as he thought the word friends. Had they even really been his friends? Did he even know what the fuck that meant?

"To Gia and everyone I figured I better be safe than sorry."

He reached into his pocket and pulled out his phone, opening his email to show her the photos that were sent to him.

"Jesus, Dick," Veronica breathed as she scrolled down the email. Close up photos of him in bed, of him walking around the beach house, of him making breakfast, of him in his home office working with his attorney. All very good quality, all extraordinarily invasive.

Veronica looked at the date stamp on the email. "Three weeks? You've had these for three weeks and you're just now coming to me with them?"

Dick shrugged. "I've been a little busy, Ronnie. Sorting out dead friends' estates and going down to see our illustrious Sheriff almost daily."

Dan Lamb was obsessed with trying to also pin Dick as an accomplice to Susan Knight's murder. Veronica Mars had made Dan Lamb look like a fool, and if he couldn't pin anything on her or Logan, he was going to try his damnedest to try and get as many others as possible.

"These pictures look like professional shots. Whoever this is couldn't have been that far away. You didn't see anyone? Notice anyone suspicious?" Veronica said as she forwarded the message to herself and to Mac.

"I haven't really been noticing a whole lot lately, to be honest."

Veronica pursed her lips then bellowed, "Mac!"

"Yeah," the reply came closer than Dick or Veronica expected. He turned to see Mac standing just outside the doorway, her curiosity apparently getting the better of her.

"Oh," Veronica replied a little stunned she was so close by. "I just sent you an email. It's from an undisclosed sender, I was hoping You could work some of your Q magic and track down where they're coming from?"

"Sure thing, Bond." Mac moved back towards her computer happy for something to do other than listen to the voices drifting out through the office.

"Anything else, Dick?"

Dick snapped his attention back to Veronica and shook his head.

"Seriously? No other weird things that have been happening?"

Dick shook his head again and rain a nervous hand through his hair. "Just the emails, really."

"Emails? As in plural? What other emails have you been sent, Dick?"

Veronica asked but didn't wait for him to reply as she still had his phone in her possession. She scrolled through and opened an email from another undisclosed sender. The subject line read: YOU'RE NEXT.

Veronica's breath hitches as she opened the email to see a photo of Dick standing at Gia's graveside, a scope target over his face.

"Shit, Dick."

Dick shrugged, but he was worried, too. Maybe this was finally his due, one too many bad decisions and soon his body would be joining Susan's somewhere in the Pacific.

"Can you think of anyone who would want you dead?"

"Tons of people probably want that, Ronnie. I mean, haven't you at some point in your life?"

Veronica rolled her eyes and went out into the reception area leaving him alone in Keith Mars' office. When she returned, she had a yellow legal pad and pen. She handed them over to him.

"Write down anyone you can think of. Do you have security cameras at your house?"

He nodded. "A couple, but they're not set up for an exterior view, really."

"Well, we're going to have to fix that. Can the feeds be viewed online?" Dick nodded again. "Good, you'll need to give Mac access."

He paused in writing his list. "Why do you actually care, Veronica?"

"I already told you."

"Logan, right."

"And," Veronica sighed, "you're not at all what I would call a friend, but you're not half bad, Dick. You've been-I wouldn't say helpful, but useful. I actually don't want to see anything happen to you."

"Damn, Ronnie."

"Yeah, repeat that to anyone, and you'll find yourself on the business end of Mr. Sparky, got it?"

"Got it."


	3. Under Construction

After providing as detailed a list as possible and receiving only a few derisive scoffs from Veronica, Dick made his way to leave Mars Investigation, hoping for a beer and some rest, not necessarily in that order. He stopped in front of Mac's desk, picking up his phone from the edge of it, and pulling her attention from whatever she was doing.

"Mac?" Her name left his lips as a question and it annoyed him.

She raised an eyebrow but didn't say anything.

"I just...I'm," Dick sighed. What on earth was he doing? He wasn't unsure of himself. He was Dick Casablancas. She was just Mac: bitchy, hot, nerdy friend of Logan's on again girl.

Who was he actually kidding?

He straightened up his posture and tried again. "Ronnie said I should get your number in case anything else comes in or what not. So..."

Mac shook her head. "Not necessary Dick, I already have your number and you'll find mine and Veronica's in your contact list."

"Oh," he nodded simply. Of course. She was always ten steps ahead of him. "Well, I need to give you access to my security feed."

Mac rolled her eyes and turned her monitor to show real time shots of Dick's Manzanita Drive beach house.

"Do you need anything else?" She asked, her tone much more smug than he could ever remember it being before.

He shook his head no and turned quickly before he was overwhelmed with the desire to yell at her for being a bitch to him. What had he actually done to her? He didn't trick her into becoming his friend, and he would be damned if he apologized again for something he didn't do. So, yes, he had in fact yelled at her and ignored her, but only after she'd done it to him first!

Dick paused in his mental rumination. 'You're not in high school or college anymore, dude.'

Would acting like his name convince her that he was capable of change, that he was not the same Dick of...four months prior? Probably not. Maybe a different tactic was in order.

He felt a headache building from the mental hoops he was jumping through. As he reached the door, he stopped and turned back towards Mac once more, one last-ditch effort. "I'm sorry I didn't tell you before, but you look great, Mac."

And with that he left the office.

* * *

><p>"Figure anything out, Q?" Veronica asked setting a hot, soy latte on the corner of Mac's desk.<p>

Dick left a few hours previous with explicit instructions from Veronica to let her know if he got any more emails or saw anyone suspicious around the beach house. She was concerned, she wasn't Dick Casablancas' biggest fan and, yes, at times thought the world could've been better without him, but given the climate in Neptune, and how much Dick meant to Logan, he was family after all, she was taking this seriously.

"No," Mac's tone was dejected. Her mind still reeling with Dick's parting words, and the jumbled mess that his apparent stalker created. "Whoever is sending these emails certainly knows what they're doing. They're being sent through proxy and I keep getting pings from all over the place: Dubai, Oklahoma City, São Paulo, you name it. Whoever is doing this certainly knows their way around a computer."

"Are you going to be able to figure it out?"

Mac looked at Veronica and raised an eyebrow. Veronica threw her hands up and sat on the corner of the desk. "Sorry I doubted you, Quartermaster."

"Damn straight."

Veronica smirked and kicked out a booted heel. She didn't know how to ask her next question, wasn't sure she wanted an answer.

"Just ask, Veronica, your constant movement is making me nervous."

"Did something happen between you and Dick?" Veronica blurted no longer interested in trying for subtlety.

Mac shrugged, her fingers stilling on the keyboard. "Define something."

"Mac."

"No," Mac rejoined. "At least not really. It was a long time ago, Veronica. You were gone, Logan was spiraling and Dick was...he was there. We became friends. In our own way. And then we weren't. Simple as that."

Veronica tilted her head and stared at Mac who refused to meet her gaze. "Nope," Veronica shot out. "I refuse to buy that, Mac. Something happened."

"It was eight years ago, Veronica. It doesn't matter. Who's still affected by something that happened that long ago?"

Veronica raised one hand and pointed at herself with the other. "Me. I am. Goes by the name of Logan Echolls. Handsome, strong, Navy aviator. You may have heard of him."

"That's different and you know it. Dick and I didn't have anything. Nothing real. We don't even rate on a scale of one to ten. We'd probably be a negative five, to be perfectly honest."

"So why won't you tell me?"

Mac growled and picked up her latte, taking a big sip, wincing as it scalded her tongue. "Because, it doesn't matter."

"Okay," Veronica replied as she moved off the corner of the desk.

"Okay?"

"Yep."

"No."

"What?" Veronica asked confused.

"This is too easy. You're using some kind of Jedi mind trick on me, I can just feel it."

"No tricks, Mac. If you don't want to tell me, then that's your right."

"Okay," Mac said wearily as she waited for the other shoe to drop. This was just too easy, too un-Veronica like.

"If you say it's nothing, then I believe you. And it shouldn't be any problem for you to be Dick's main contact here should he need something."

"Fuck."

* * *

><p>Dick was tired by the time he got back to the beach house even though it was mid-morning. He should've been prepared for Ronnie's questions, invasive and not at all fun, but he realized that finishing law school had only made the pixie sprite more focused than before.<p>

She told him he needed to tell Logan what was going on.

"You matter to him, Dick. He'd want to know," she'd said this in a way that made him feel both guilty and angry. Guilty because he hasn't told his best friend what was happening and angry because it seemed to make it clear to him that Logan was the only one who would or could care.

It threw into sharp relief the current trajectory of this life. All his so called friends were liars willing to put his only real friend up as a sacrificial lamb.

He tried his best during his twenty-eight years of existence to feel as little as possible. It only led to bad things: being hurt, being left, being disappointed, being a disappointment. No, it was much easier to skate through life and give off the air of being dumb and unaffected. Dumb and unaffected people were left alone to be exactly who they were: useless. Dick was really good at being useless. So how the fuck did he end up in this state of affairs?

A knock came at his door, startling him out of his momentary pity party.

On the other side of the glass door was Norris, and two other deputy sheriffs for Balboa county, a folded paper in his hand.

"Deputies," Dick muttered as he opened the door. "To what do I owe the pleasure?"

"Search warrant, Mr. Casablancas," Norris Clayton replied wearily. He didn't understand his boss' obsession with the Casablancas kid. Sure he was an entitled rich kid, all these 09er's were, but this one seemed like too much of an idiot to be an accessory to murder.

Dick put out one hand for the warrant, unfolding the paper while the other reached into his pocket to pull out his cell. He hit 'three' and opened the door wider for the deputies to enter.

"Jeff, it's Dick. I have a few Balboa County Deputies in my house with what appears to be another search warrant. How soon can you get here?"

Norris shook his head, not surprised by the hasty call to the attorney. All the 09ers seemed to have them readily, annoyingly available.

"My attorney will be here in ten minutes, he'd like you to wait," Dick placed his phone back in his pocket and eyed Norris. "Don't I know you from somewhere?"

Norris scoffed. "The ten or twelve times you've been to the station don't ring any bells?"

Dick walked away into the kitchen, opening the fridge to grab a bottle of water, offering one wordlessly to Norris who declined. He didn't bother asking the other silent deputies.

"Nah, man, from someplace else."

"We did go to high school together."

"We did?"

Norris sighed and turned his back on Dick looking out on the million-dollar view of the Pacific. Obviously Dick was still just an idiot.

They waited in tense silence until the low, powerful hum of an engine was heard in Dick's drive.

Once Dick's attorney, Jeff Findley, entered the house, casually dressed in khakis and polo, he wasted no time looking over the warrant.

"Richard," the attorney began, "it seems that the Sheriff is requesting all your computer equipment, laptops, and tablet devices. I have a major problem with this, Deputy. My client has dealt with your department's continued harassment, and now you're looking to seize his property without any indication as to why it's necessary. My client is not going to relinquish his property to the Balboa County Sheriff's department until I see causation."

Jeff handed the search warrant back to Norris, and made his way over to the door to hold it open for deputies. "Should your boss have any issues, tell him to get in touch with me."

Norris motioned for the other deputies to follow him out, not bothering to refute what Jeff claimed. Norris had no dog in the fight between Dan Lamb and Dick Casablancas.

"Thanks, Jeff," Dick muttered as he watched the deputies disappear out of view around his driveway.

"That's why you pay me, Richard," Jeff replied cordially. "I recommend you back up everything on your computers. I'm not going to be able to stop this for long, and I have a feeling that once Dan Lamb returns your stuff, all your information is going to be gone."

"Yeah," Dick agreed, puzzled as to how to do that. "Do you know how to do that?"

Jeff scoffed and shook his head. "I have an assistant for everything that doesn't involve case law and hard copy books. I'm absolutely useless with a computer. You're a resourceful young man, Richard, I'm sure you can figure it out."

* * *

><p>"No."<p>

"Mac."

"No, no, and no, Veronica. What you're asking is not in my job description."

"You don't have a job description, Mac."

"Well if I did, this would certainly not be in it."

Veronica pursed her lips to keep from smiling. "I thought you said you didn't have a problem with Dick."

"Not having a problem is not the same as having to go over to his house and do something that he really should be able to figure out himself. Honestly. Can't I just talk him through it on the phone?" Mac asked hopefully, her pointer and middle fingers crossed on both hands.

"I'd like to see what's on his computer, maybe there are some clues there."

"Can't you do it?"

"Mac."

"There's probably nothing but foreign porn on Dick's computer."

"Probably, but if anyone can locate anything suspicious or important, it's you, Q."

Mac sighed and rubbed her temples. It was supposed to be a good day. "Flattery is not going to help now, V."

"How about a bribe?" Veronica questioned raising her hands in supplication.

"I'm listening," Mac rejoined.

"How about a free lunch?"

"Seriously?"

"Lattes for a week?"

Mac scoffed.

"A paid day off."

Mac raised an eyebrow. "I can get behind that."

"Excellent!" Veronica clapped. "Can you go over to Dick's this evening then?"

"Fuck."

* * *

><p>"Alright!" Dick yelled as his doorbell rang again. It rang for almost two full minutes while he rushed around his room looking for his discarded boxer briefs and a shirt before heading down to the door. He'd given up on the shirt in the final minute because he needed to stop whoever was practically laying on the doorbell from doing so.<p>

It was coming on dusk, the sun creeping down into the water of the Pacific leaving a beautiful gold and pink haze. It was Dick's second favorite time of day.

He reached for the door handle, readying himself to lay into whomever it was, but no sound escaped as he wrenched open the door to find Mac on the other side.

"Mac," he said stupidly, incredibly conscious of his current state of dress.

Mac stilled for a moment unsure of where exactly to look: Dick's lean torso? His face? His toned thighs encased in dark navy fabric? His feet? Why did he open the door practically naked?

"Got a guest, Dick? Did I interrupt something?" Mac's voice was shriller than she'd have like it to be. So what if Dick had a guest? He didn't belong to her; he wasn't her problem-in the strictest sense at least.

"Do you really think it's wise to be entertaining lady friends while someone is stalking you?"

"I'm not entertaining anyone, Mackenzie, I was asleep, if you must know-alone. Is that okay by you?" Dick replied sharply. What was it about her that just got under his skin?

Mac threw up her hands. "What you do is no concern of mine. Sorry I asked. Where are the computers I need to back up?"

Mac moved past him into the entryway of his house trying to keep her eyes off of him in his half dressed state while also telling herself to ignore how good he smelled.

"Uh," Dick ran a hand through his hair and motioned for her to follow him through the house. "My laptop is here," he said as he pointed to the kitchen island. "The desktop is upstairs in my office. Wherever you'd like to start."

"I'll start here," Mac claimed a stool at the island and pulled the expensive and sleek Macbook pro towards her. "Maybe you can get dressed while I do this."

Dick turned away from her and reached into the fridge for two bottles of water. He set one beside her quickly moving hands before leaning against the counter to observe her.

He twisted the top of the bottle and took a long pull from it before he spoke. "I'm good. You're in my house, after all. I like to be comfortable. Feel free to take off your clothes if that would make you more comfortable."

Mac paused and looked at him. There's the Dick she was waiting for. "I'm really surprised you're even home, and you were in bed? So early and alone? It's a weeknight, isn't that the perfect time to go and party at the 09er?"

"Well," Dick started setting his bottle down with more force than necessary. "All the people I would go to the 09er with are, well, let's see," he held up his hand as he went through it, "dead, accessories to murder and therefore piss poor company, in the middle of Persian Gulf, or...nope, that about covers it."

Mac cringed, once again annoyed with herself as well as ashamed. "Dick-"

He ignored her and moved towards the stairs. "When you're done, just come up the stairs to the office. You're smart, I'm sure you can figure out which room that is."

* * *

><p>Dick went back to his room and ignored the impulse to close the bedroom door. He climbed onto his California King and reclined, one arm moving across his face to block out the waning sun.<p>

Would she always think the worst of him? Was it even possible for her to change her mind about him.

A knock came at the door and he sighed. "What?" he asked tersely.

"Can I come in?" Mac sounded tentative, and a little rushed.

"Sure."

The door handle turned and Mac entered, his laptop in one hand. "You've got a problem."

"Yeah, no fucking shit, Mac. You've made that abundantly clear." He replied as he shot up to a sitting position. "I get that. You fucking hate me; I don't know what I'm supposed to do to fix that. I know I fucked up all those years ago, but I didn't do what you think I did, and I will not apologize for it anymore. I know I'm an asshole, I'm working on it, but can't you just give me a fucking break and get off my back about it?"

Mac took a deep breath and shook her head. "I just meant with your computer, Dick. You've got a problem with your computer."

"Oh." Great, now he really was a total fucking asshole. Could he never win with her?

"You've got spyware," Mac pressed on. "Legitimate, can see your every move, tap into your camera when it's on, read your emails, mess with your files, spyware."


	4. Unexpected

**AN: Thank you, all of you, yes, the you's reading right now for reading, reviewing, and enjoying the story! I hope you continue to enjoy it. I'm super thrilled that this little brain child has started to grow into its own unique thing. This chapter is...well, this chapter almost consumed me, but I really do hope you enjoy it. Also, if you want to see a little of how I envision Dick's home, you can catch a picture of it on my Tumblr: [jesuistoujourfidele].[tumblr].comI hope you enjoy this chapter!**

* * *

><p>When Mac looked over Dick's desktop computer, she found the same software there as was on his laptop, noting the places whomever had put the software on had been tracking.<p>

"These programs were manually installed, as well as some additional hardware on your desktop. Who has had access to your computers?"

Dick rubbed his temples. "Shit, a lot of people, Mac."

"What do you mean a lot of people?"

"I mean just that. I've had tons of parties here and haven't exactly kept track of every single party guest, so anyone could've been here and installed this stuff. I'm not the most observant guy on the planet, you know?"

"You don't say?" Mac's biting retort almost inaudible.

Dick sighed. He didn't want to go round for round with her about his stupidity. He knew she'd win, hands down, and he really wasn't up for a fight at the moment. Not with her at least.

"So, what do I do now?"

"Well," Mac began pulling her cell from her pocket to check the time. "I need to call Veronica and let her know, then I'll need to take this off your computer and try to see if whoever put it on here left some sort of signature. Most people usually do."

"A signature? Like a bat signal or something?"

Mac rolled her eyes. "No. Not like that. Most coders and hackers have specific ways of letting others know their work."

"Do you have one?" Dick asked his curiosity peaked.

Mac ignored him as she dialed Veronica and sat at his desktop, a black screen popping up with a simple command prompt.

"Hey V."

"Do you want a pizza or something?"

Dick and Mac said at the same time.

"Hold on, V," Mac turned. "What did you say, Dick?"

"Uh, dinner." He replied nervously, acutely aware that he was still basically undressed. "I didn't know how long this would take you and it's late and I just wanted to know if you maybe wanted a pizza or something. Whatever you want."

"I'm a vegan, Dick."

"Yeah, I recall that detail," he kicked up a corner of his mouth and shook his head. "I know a place that delivers regular pizza and your vegan crap too."

Mac nodded, "okay," and then turned back to his computer, affectively ending the conversation with him.

"Okay," he said leaving the room and ignoring the small thrill he got as he realized he'd be sharing a meal with her again.

* * *

><p>"Sorry, V," Mac's fingers flew across the keyboard, her phone squished between her shoulder and ear.<p>

"Wow, you're willingly having dinner with Dick Casablancas? Now I know there's more to this story for real." Veronica teased.

"Veronica."

"Sorry," Veronica quickly said, Mac's tone letting her know that now was not the moment. "What's up, Mac? Find anything more than porn?"

Mac sighed. "Yeah, a lot more. Like a spyware program that's been tracking his every move, using his webcam, and I'm pretty sure attempting to write itself into his financials. It doesn't look like the program made it that far, but this is bad, V. Whoever is doing this is either working with someone or knows a heck of a lot about computers."

"So you're saying Dick's apparent stalker has their own Q?"

"Or they're one in the same. Kind of hard to picture that though since stalkers are more crime of passion people than crime of reason."

"Wow," Veronica laughed. "I'm impressed, Mac. How'd you learn so much about criminal elements?"

"I learned from the best, Bond."

"Aww, Mac."

"I meant the Internet, of course."

Veronica huffed in fake annoyance. "Just for that, I've now earned three Dick Casablancas jokes to use at my leisure."

"No deal."

"Not a negotiation, Q. How long do you think it'll be before you're done?"

"Just a couple of hours, probably less. Want me to stop by when I'm done?"

"Nah, unless you find something that's incredibly pressing, we can go over it tomorrow. I've got a Skype date with a hot sailor tonight."

Mac smiled, a little jealous of Veronica, and a little sad she was away from the man she loved for a little while longer. "How many more days?"

"Fifty-three. And they can't pass soon enough."

"But they will, Bond. They will."

"I know," Veronica returned putting one cheerful tone. "I'll let you go, Q. Don't work too hard, and enjoy your dinner date with Dick. Oh, I like the alliteration."

Mac huffed. "It's not a date."

"You're at his house having dinner that he's paying for. What do you call that?"

"Forced companionship?" Mac asked her voice rising at the end.

"I don't think so, friend. Since you won't actually tell me what I happened between the two of you, I'll just go ahead and assume the worst and say-"

"Nope."

"You don't even-"

"Bye Veronica."

Mac ended the call quickly, knowing that her friend would make her pay for that later.

"The pizza will be here in about thirty minutes."

Mac jumped slightly in her chair, turning quickly to the doorway where Dick stood, now fully clothed. She was annoyed with herself for being disappointed at that.

"You shouldn't sneak up on people. Maybe we should get you a bell."

"I'm not usually into any of that kinky stuff, Mac, but for you, maybe." He walked over to the plush, oversized chair that was slightly catty corner to the desk where Mac sat.

"And I wasn't sneaking, you were on the phone."

Mac rolled her eyes, worried about the frequency she'd been doing this since once again coming back into regular contact with Dick.

"Don't you have something you could be doing?"

"Nope."

"So, you're just going to sit there and stare at me, or what?"

"I don't know, what's the 'or what' option?"

Mac hated the tiny shiver that went up her spine. His tone was warm and a little dangerous. It thrilled her and pissed her off all at the same time-the essence of her feelings towards Dick.

She quickly turned back to the computer, furiously clicking away at the keys, trying to stop her hands from shaking.

Dick sat quietly for about five minutes, content to watch her work. When she was deep in concentration, her eyes got wider, her breath was steady, and she bit at the corner of her bottom lip. Dick found it deeply entrancing and much more erotic than he should.

"Why'd you cut your hair?" Dick asked cutting into the silence.

Mac shrugged and continued to type, doing her best to block him out.

"I mean," Dick tried again, not really caring if she wouldn't say anything back to him. Maybe she'd just listen for a change. "Don't get me wrong, I like it, but I miss the colorful streaks."

"Mmm."

Dick sat back again and watched, knowing she was busy, and yet knowing how highly capable she was of multitasking.

"Do you only hate me because of college? Or is this there something else?"

Mac stopped her typing, and placed her hands firmly on the desk beside the keyboard. "Dick, honestly, now is not the time to rehash the past."

"When would be a good time for you?" He asked seriously.

"Preferably never. Let's leave the past where it is. Why are you so anxious to bring all this up now? You've had eight years to say anything."

"Well," Dick stood and paced the small area, "let's see, you're in my house, someone is potentially trying to harm me in some way so why not take this opportunity now, and I seem to be running out of friends pretty rapidly. Why not now?"

"Dick," Mac began, "let's not put this on to anything more than a matter of convenience. Neither one of us has had the inclination to want to go back in time, to talk about any of the things that happened. It was eight years ago. It's not that big a deal, let's just let what happened be over and done with."

"No."

"No?" Mac was incredulous. "What the hell do you mean no?"

"I mean just that, I mean no. No I don't want to forget it. You were my friend and then you weren't all because you never actually trusted me and were always prepared to believe the worst. And you still are. And we can't move forward until you actually trust me."

"You didn't exactly make it easy to trust you, Dick. And, move forward to what?" Mac yelled.

Dick quickly crossed from his spot at the edge of the office to just in front of her chair.

"This," he whispered before leaning down and kissing her.

Her lips were soft, her breath sweet. He didn't try to pry her lips open, a technique that worked for him with women, but he didn't want to rush her, he just wanted—more. He wanted her to want him again, or was it for the first time?

He pulled back suddenly when he realized her didn't know this Mac. This Mac was a person he hadn't spoken two words to, in eight years, prior to earlier in the day. Maybe kissing Mac before actually getting her to trust him wasn't something that would be effective. Mac was—Mac was more than. He wasn't sure exactly what that more was, but he knew, in his gut, that she was worth more effort than this. Kissing Mac, as incredible as the experience made him feel, would only convince her he was exactly the person she thought him to be: wild and directed by his libido instead of common sense.

He started to open his mouth to apologize, but was interrupted by the doorbell.

"Saved by the bell," Dick mumbled under his breath. "Take a break and come eat," he said turning quickly, "if you'd like."

* * *

><p>Mac sat for a few minutes, her fingers trembling as they touched her bottom lip.<p>

Stupid.

That's what she was for kissing him back. This was Dick, she was here and convenient, nothing more.

But she didn't have to encourage him.

Forget how a kiss so simple, and rather chaste, made her heart race and her stomach clench. She was happy she was sitting down otherwise you could probably knock her over with a feather.

Light. He made her feel light. And happy.

And that terrified her.

Dick wasn't a guy who stayed or settled. She wouldn't let herself be fooled again.

Mac wiped her slightly sweaty palms against her jeans and got up to go downstairs and act like nothing happened.

Because she was sure it was just an aberration, a heat of the moment type thing.

It wasn't going to happen again.

* * *

><p>As Dick made it to the bottom of the stairs, he knew something was off. He craned his head to the side to look out of the full bay windows, no one was standing at the front door, but light was flickering through, which shouldn't still be the case as the sun had already set.<p>

Dick walked further into the kitchen towards the front door and stopped, his heart pounding; there was a fire outside, a rapidly growing one at that. Shrubs and rose bushes that were in front of the house lit up in front of his eyes and grew faster as one plant seemed to be ignited by another, then another, and another. Much too fast to be random; it was awesome in its terror.

A gasp behind him forced him back into the present.

"Oh my god, oh my god," Mac muttered as she shakily dialed 911 on her phone. "Yes, we need the fire department right away, 6732 Manzanita Drive. No, not in the house at the time, but rapidly growing outside of the house and down the drive-Dick!"

Mac's phone clattered to the floor as she watched Dick sprint out of his front door after he grabbed a fire extinguisher, she was mildly impressed he owned, from under a kitchen cabinet.

Flames licked the edges of the driveway, but didn't ignite it. The overwhelming smell of lighter fluid permeated the air with the sweet, sickly smell of roses and chrysanthemums.

"Dick!" Mac coughed as she watched Dick spray down the bushes with the white foamy substance, he'd run out for sure before the fire was out.

"Get back inside Mac!"

"No," Mac spouted immediately at being told what to do. She couldn't just leave him outside, but she felt utterly useless.

Deciding to help rather than stand and be useless, she ran back into the house and scrounged around the kitchen for a bucket or something large enough that she could fill with water to help him. She wondered if he knew whether or not he owned a garden hose. The hookup for the spigot was probably somewhere behind the burning shrubs anyway.

She ran to a door she thought might be a pantry or utility closet briefly wondering if a person who didn't do their own house cleaning or gardening would own a bucket or know anything about a garden hose.

'Now is not the time for commentary, Mac' she thought searching as much as she could for something, anything to help.

The nearing wail of a siren pulled her from her search. As Mac ran back to the door, the sound of glass shattering and a loud bang ripped through the air and made her stop in horror before doubling her speed to get back outside.

"Dick!" Mac screamed as she ran down the front path and back out to where Dick was. He was lying on the ground, extinguisher rolling away from him.

"Dick!" Mac hurried to where he was knelt beside him, checking to see if he was bleeding or hurt. "Dick, what on earth was—"

"Mac," Dick coughed a little, the smoke and fumes were starting to make it difficult to get in clean air. "Your car."

"What?" Mac asked confused.

"Your car."

Mac's eyes followed to where Dick pointed. Her car, a mini coupe, was engulfed in flames where it sat in Dick's drive.

The scene was utter chaos.

Mac felt utterly useless and was horrified to see what was happening around them. The flames from her car adding to the scene, the smell of gasoline and the twisting sounds of metal were the only things that could be heard.

Dick's entire front landscape was on fire. The beautiful 'Baby Bear Manzanita' that stood majestic in the middle of Dick's circular drive was completely engulfed in flames, the tip top most branches snapping and breaking and falling to the concrete below it. The second sparse grass that surrounded the base of the tree was charred to the dirt below.

Dick sat up and watched as the flames continued to consume. His extinguisher had given out and there was no way this could be contained by just him.

The fire department killed the sirens once they made it to the foot of his drive, four firemen dressed in full fire suits racing to hook up two hoses and unwind them from the engine.

Dick and Mac stood quickly and moved out of the way while the firefighters worked, listening to the men tell back and forth at one another, doing their utmost to subdue the fire.

Mac lifted her hand to the back of Dick's arm.

"I'm here."

Dick didn't move as he watched the smoke billow into the air from the extinguished flames. Mac kept her hand on his arm as she looked around the exterior of the house checking for any more hotspots. She looked towards the security camera near the front door to see that the input line had been cut.

Had it been that way when she arrived? It couldn't have been. She would've noticed that.

And she definitely would've noticed the smell of lighter fluid. Whoever did this had done so while she'd been inside, they'd done this all while she and Dick had been upstairs, little more than an hour. Was that even possible?

"I need to call Veronica, Dick." Mac let go of his arm and turned to go back into the house, startled when Dick grabbed her arm.

"Use my phone. I don't want-you should stay close, Mac. Someone is targeting me, but Mac don't you think they'd know that wasn't my car? Whoever it is, Mac, didn't care," he passed her his phone as he finished. "I'd rather you stayed here."

Mac nodded not saying anything else as she dialed Veronica's number. Why was nothing ever simple in Neptune?

"V, we have a serious problem."


	5. The Inbetween

**AN: Thanks again for all your comments! I really do appreciate it. I hope no one was thrown off by the change of summary and chapter titles, it just felt more authentic for where the story is going. I hope you enjoy this transitional chapter. Happy Weekend! xo**

* * *

><p>Dick sat on his couch staring out at the ocean, the muffled sounds of police chatter breaking into his consciousness now and again.<p>

Balboa County had once again sent out deputies, but this time to take statements from both he and Mac. He'd finished his round of interrogation, and Mac was currently in the kitchen with the deputies going over her version of events.

"Dick?" He turned and saw Veronica moving to sit on the coffee table in front of the couch. "You okay?"

"No, Ronnie." Dick ran a hand through his hair, frustrated. "What if something had happened to Mac? I'd never-Veronica, whoever did this could give a fuck about anyone else. They could've burned down the house! They could've hurt her!"

"They could've hurt you, too, Dick. You matter in this too." Veronica finished quietly.

Dick shook his head and continued as if he hadn't heard her. "God, like Mac needs to be affected, indirectly or not, by another Casablancas. Like either of you do. I'm sorry I asked you to do this, Ronnie. Oh god, Logan's going to kill me when he finds out, and-"

"Dick. Stop. It's going to be okay. We'll figure this out. You're fine, Mac is fine, a little shaken, but fine. Now I need you to tell me what happened. Where were you and Mac? Did you hear anything at all?"

Dick sighed and ran his hands through his hair. "No, we were upstairs in the office, Mac was doing her Mac thing with the computer and I came downstairs when the doorbell rang. I thought it was the pizza I ordered."

"And nothing looked suspicious when you got home?"

"No, but I parked in the garage, I didn't come in through the front door, and no, before you ask, I didn't check the security cameras when I got home. I didn't think of it."

"I'm not blaming you, Dick."

Dick scoffed. "Not now, but when you get the chance to think it through, I'm sure you will. I mean what could I have possibly done in order to have someone want me dead?"

Veronica sighed. "That's just it, Dick, I don't think they want you dead, fire notwithstanding." Veronica pulled out her phone and checked the time before replacing it. "I mean, honestly, Dick, from the pictures they sent you before, they were close enough to have seriously hurt you, and tonight, they didn't try to burn down your house, just the outside, but I don't like what happened to Mac's car, something about that doesn't feel right, so we'll all need to be careful . Dick, what if someone is just trying to scare you off or stop you from doing something?"

"What am I supposed to be doing, Veronica?" Dick yelled, frustrated. He just wanted his normal, pointless existence back. "I have no clue what the fuck is going on, but I'll tell you something, Ronnie, whoever this is can come after me all they want, but they better leave Mac alone or I'll kill them."

"Wow," Veronica spoke as she leaned back, stunned by this Dick. "What on earth happened between you and Mac?"

Dick stared at her for a beat. Mac never said anything to Veronica? "Nothing."

"Dick," Veronica rolled her eyes, apparently that's where Mac got it from. "No man reacts to 'nothing' the way you reacted just now. Something happened. You can either tell me now and I can give you the chance have your side of the story told your way, or I can figure it out on my own, and you should note that should there be any, ANY, salacious or sketchy details that involve you, my full wrath will come down on you. Do I make myself clear?"

"Damn it, Ronnie. I'm not going to play this game with you. I know how you operate, quite well actually, but I really think you should talk to Mac about it. Please. It's only half my story to tell anyway, and it's not really that big of deal. You left for Stanford, Logan was a mess, I was a mess and Mac was—Mac was, there. And she understood. And she didn't try to change me, but it happened anyway."

Veronica took a deep breath and let it out slowly. "Who even are you, Dick? That is not at all what I was expecting."

"Glad to know I can surprise you, Rons."

"Seriously, Dick."

Dick shrugged and moved from the couch towards the stairs. "I don't know, maybe I'm finally doing that thing called growing up. I can tell you that it sucks and I hate it, though, if that makes you feel any better."

"Where are you going?"

Dick paused and turned back to address Veronica's question. "I'm going to pack a bag. I'm not staying here tonight. I can't face this place alone, again, and especially after tonight."

"Well, where are you going to go?"

Dick shrugged and made his way toward the stairs.

"Well," Veronica's voice made him pause again. "We're going to have to go to Mac's first, or MI, but Mac's computer set up at her apartment is way better than at the office. Make sure you pack up your laptop."

Dick turned once again, speeding up his pace to make it up the stairs before Veronica added anything else to his plate. He ignored the looks from the few deputies that remained in his house and he especially avoided looking at Mac.

* * *

><p>It took hours before they could leave Dick's house between the question by the police, the arson detective from the fire department, and waiting for a tow truck to come and take the remains of Mac's car.<p>

"You can borrow one of mine, Mac," Dick said quietly as he stood on one side of Mac while Veronica stood on the other, watching the charred remains of her car being loaded onto the tow truck.

"Uh, I don't really think that's a great idea, Dick."

"Why?"

"Because I would feel really terrible if something happened to your car while I had it. I'll be fine, I'll just call my parents and see if mom or dad doesn't need their car for a few days."

"You really want to have that conversation with your parents rather than just taking one of mine? I'll look it over, make sure nothing's out of place, and I won't even care if you put a ding or two in it. Please, Mac? I feel-I feel terrible about this. This wouldn't have happened to you if you hadn't been here. Please? It's the least I can do. I'll even let you take the Roadster."

"What?" Veronica exclaimed pulling Dick and Mac out of their conversation bubble. "You don't even let Logan drive that thing."

Dick scoffed. "Uh, no shit, Ronnie, he drives way too fast. Mac seems much more sedate, less Navy pilot with a need for speed."

"Dick, honestly-"

"Mac, stop, I'll go get the keys, then we can go to your Batcave."

Veronica and Mac watched as Dick walked back into the house.

"Okay, seriously, Mac, what really happened? I have to know."

"Uh," Mac began, "I already told you what happened, Veronica, I'd rather not relive this night again if I could help it."

"Not what I'm talking about, Mac. Dick gave me what is definitely half a story if I can even classify it as that. And now he's letting you drive a $100,000 car, and he's really concerned about your safety, and it's the most real moment I've ever seen from Dick, so tell me, put me out of misery, before I think you carried on a secret affair when I left for Stanford."

Mac sighed, "Okay, V, I promise to tell you everything, but not tonight. Please? I promise to submit to your inquisition tomorrow."

Veronica pointed at Mac and nodded. "I'm holding you to it."

Mac nodded her attention caught by the tow truck driver coming over with a clipboard for her to sign letting her know the location of the impound lot where the remains of her mini was being taken.

Dick returned with the two sets of keys and an overnight bag and Mac's purse slung over one shoulder. "I locked up the house. Did you bring in anything besides your bag Mac?"

She shook her head and took her bag from his outstretched hands as well as the key fob for the Roadster.

"Good, the alarm's on. I'll call the surveillance company tomorrow about the camera. We can go around the back to the garage."

"I'll meet you at your place, Mac?" Veronica asked to clarify.

Mac nodded, she was so tired, the bit of adrenaline that had overtaken her when she'd first seen the fire was waning. She hoped she'd be able to make it to her place."

"Why don't you ride with Veronica, Mac." Dick didn't ask, he turned and moved her body down his drive to where Veronica had parked Logan's BMW. "I'll bring you to pick up the Roadster tomorrow. You look like you're going to fall over."

Mac nodded and followed Veronica to the car. She got in and threw her head back against the plush leather. "We don't have to do this tonight, Mac, I'll call Dick and let him know that we'll pick it up in the morning. You really do look exhausted."

"I'm fine," Mac's voice was low and muffled by the wind as they drove down Manzanita Drive towards the warehouse district, newly revitalized, where Mac's rather nice apartment was. Veronica wondered how she could still afford the rent now that she didn't work for Kane Software anymore.

Fifteen minutes later they were pulling up to the electronic gate in front of the parking garage. Veronica turned and looked at Mac who seemed to be fast asleep. Veronica grabbed Mac's bag from the floorboard by her feet and searched until she found the garage clicker knowing it would give enough time for Dick's truck to get through as well.

Veronica really didn't want to wake her friend, but she needed to get her out of the car and safely into her apartment. They'd worry about everything else the next day, which was only a few hours from now as it was.

"I'll carry her in," Dick said over Veronica's shoulder. Veronica arched a sardonic brow, but made no comment. She was chomping at the bit to hear Mac's story.

Dick lifted Mac carefully from the car. Veronica amusedly wondered just how many sleeping girls had been lifted from the passenger's seat of Logan's car.

She hoped she and Mac were the only two.

Veronica made herself useful opening and unlocking doors, and pointing towards the back of the loft to where Mac's bedroom was. Dick set her down gently in the middle of the bed, taking extra care not to jostle her. He removed her boots, standard footwear for the women of Mar's Investigation it seemed, and set them carefully on the ground at the foot of the bed.

"That's all I'm comfortable doing," Dick turned towards Veronica as he said this. "You all are friends, maybe you want to, uh, whatever, but I'm gonna leave the room now."

Veronica stopped herself from laughing and grabbed the blanket at the end of the bed pulling it up over Mac. She really didn't want to leave her. Veronica pulled out her phone from her pocket noting the time. Whether she liked it or not, she knew her father would still be up waiting for her to tell him what happened. She'd call and tell him she was staying at Mac's for the night.

Veronica left the room and closed the door with a quiet snick. "Thanks for your help, Dick. I'm going to stay here for the night. I'd feel better if Mac wasn't alone. She's not quite used to this level of P.I. excitement "

"I'm glad you'll be here. I didn't like the thought of her alone." Dick rubbed the back of his neck and looked down at his feet. "And don't worry about it Ronnie. Really, it's nothing. The very least I could do, honestly."

Veronica hesitated before speaking again. "It was a big deal, Dick. We'll figure this out, I promise."

Dick nodded. "Thanks." He hesitated for a moment, looking around the industrial space that was both cool and warm, so like Mac. "Uh, I guess I'll go. I'll come by in the morning."

"Where are you going to stay, Dick?"

"My old standby: The Neptune Grand."

* * *

><p>Mac woke the next morning, suddenly, out of breath, and disoriented. She was in her bed without any recollection of how she got there. She still smelled of smoke as she was still in her clothes from the day before. She sat up in bed and pulled off her top, wincing as she did. Her arms were stiff and she wasn't all the surprised. A by product of the amount of adrenaline her body expelled the day prior.<p>

Bright sunlight was streaming in the large window, she was glad for the day, yet not all at the same time. They had a lot of work to do, and on top of everything else, she had to work on an insurance claim.

"Just peachy." Mac muttered to the empty room.

"Mac?"

Mac screeched slightly from the unexpected voice and knock at her door.

"Sorry," Veronica said quickly, "it's just me. I didn't want to leave you alone last night. Didn't mean to scare you, Q."

"It's fine," Mac replied pressing a hand to her chest. She grabbed at her discarded shirt and threw it back on over her head. "You can come in."

Mac's door swung open as Veronica came in. She was dressed in Navy sweats and an over-large Navy t-shirt. Mac raised an eyebrow at her attire and Veronica smiled.

"The things the Lieutenant keeps in the trunk of his car. It's like he knows me or something."

Mac smiled and then gasped. "Oh, God, did you get to talk to him last night? What with everything that happened?"

"Yeah, for a bit, don't worry, Mac. Even if I hadn't, I wouldn't hold it against you. Things happen. It's all a part of the job."

"I would just feel really terrible-"

"Well, no reason to feel bad. How are you feeling this morning?"

Mac shrugged and pulled at a thread on her blanket. "That was the craziest thing I've seen in a long time, Bond, and even though I saw it and I was there. It doesn't make sense to me. There are too many outstanding variables. If the intent was to harm Dick in some way, why not try to burn down his house or-" Mac stopped and shuddered not wanting to consider the or.

"I know, Q. I've been going over the same things, and something's missing. This just doesn't add up. There was no real escalation, and it seems to well planned to have been a heat of the moment thing. What I really don't like is why whoever did this decided to target you."

"Me?" Mac asked quixotically. "You think they're targeting me? Why on earth would someone want to do that?"

"Well, I can think of a few reasons, but first, you owe me a story."

Mac groaned and plopped back on her bed. "Can't I get coffee first?"

"Coffee or a shower, your choice. That's as much stalling as you're allowed to do."

Mac really thought about it. A shower seemed absolutely necessary but her brain was practically begging for coffee.

"Coffee. I choose coffee."

* * *

><p>"Okay, enough suspense," Veronica said grabbing Mac's empty mug out of her hand and setting it on the coffee table.<p>

They'd moved to the living room after making the coffee. Mac had the files from Dick's computer loading onto a partitioned space on her computer to look over what the person who installed the software was trying to track or trying to set up.

Mac sighed. "I don't even know where to begin."

"Post me leaving," Veronica offered.

"Okay," Mac settled back into the comfort of her dark, suede couch and let herself drift back in time. "Well, after you left, things just seemed to implode. Logan kept getting more and more reckless, I hardly saw Wallace anymore, Parker got really weird. She became obsessive about things, it was just-we ended up not living together senior year after I got back from MIT, and Dick-well, Dick was there. And yeah, when we first started hanging out it was really freaking weird. I'd gone over to The Grand to get a quarterly check from Logan. He was out, but Dick was there.

"He was," Mac broke off for a moment and smiled. "He was nice, for lack of a better word. He wasn't senior year or first year at Hearst Dick. And he wasn't the Dick who tried to kiss me on the beach that one time-"

"I'm sorry, what now? When did that happen?" Veronica interjected.

"Do you want me to finish the story or not?"

Veronica pantomimed zipping her lips and motioned for Mac to go on.

"Any way, he invited me in and asked if I wanted to play a video game and then asked about school and Max, which I didn't even know he knew Max existed, but I guess I'm not surprised. And it just kind of happened. We got close. We didn't really avoid talking about things with Cassidy, and he was always really blunt, sometimes needlessly so, but that's Dick, I guess. He didn't really believe in holding things back.

"I still don't really know how it happened, but suddenly one day he asked me out. And I said yes."

Mac looked towards her empty cup of coffee and wished she had a distraction. She really didn't want to relive.

"I went to meet him at the Pi Sig house. I was always there, playing video games, helping his brothers with their math homework. I thought we were all getting along. No, I wasn't a sorority queen and I never would be, but they didn't seem to care.

"Any way, I went over and overheard Chip congratulating Dick on winning the bet to go out with me. And somehow I just-it just had to be true right? After everything that happened, how could anything else possibly be true? There was no other way that Dick Casablancas would go out with me. He denied it, of course. Said he knew nothing about it, but I just couldn't believe him. And the voice in my head just kept reminding me how stupid I was to believe he would willingly be friends with me, or even want something more. And that was the end of it. I didn't speak to Dick again until the reunion. Well, minus the times where he drunkenly berated me on campus, but I try not to think of those."

Veronica sat silent, stony faced as she processed Mac's story.

"So, that's it. That's my whole story."

"Do you still care about Dick?" Veronica asked quietly.

Mac scoffed and threw up her hands. "Did you not just hear my story? No, Veronica, I don't care about Dick. And I certainly don't trust him."

"I think you just don't want to."

Mac's mouth gaped open, unbelieving.

"Hear me out," Veronica put her hands up in supplication. "You said in your story that you were friends, that you got along, that Dick was blunt and honest, but you were willing to jump ship at the first sign that he was less than truthful.

"Mac," Veronica looked at her hard, "this is Dick we're talking about. Not someone I would ever believe would set up a long con for anything, but especially when he could have his pick of girls. I think you wanted and out and you took it."

Mac was stunned. "Are you really defending Dick Casablancas to me? Who the hell are you?"

"I know, I know. But stranger things have happened and Mac," Veronica paused looking Mac straight on. "You didn't see him when he was talking to me about you. I may not like a lot about Dick Casablancas, but there are just some things you can't fake. And, no, I wouldn't encourage you to think about anything with the old Dick Casablancas, but this Dick Casablancas? He's growing up."

"Okay, Veronica," Mac replied flippantly. "If you're so wise about Dick Casablancas, and you honestly don't believe he and his stupid frat brothers bet on when he could take me out and bed me, then why was I so willing to believe the worst about him? You believed the worst about him with the Susan Knight case. I was not crazy to believe that Dick Casablancas was capable of doing this to me."

"Okay, let's think about it this way, why would he need to do this? It's not like he lacked money, and I'm pretty sure that alone made him a popular Pi Sig. It's not like he needed to rise to the ranks by pulling some stunt. I think, maybe you just needed something to take out on him, and this gave you an excuse. He was a dick to you for a long time, he made fun of your relationship with Cassidy, he wasn't a good guy and you just wanted to make sure you could justify that. And yes, Dick was cruel in high school, just like Logan, but look how that turned out.

"And, I believed the worst because he was on the boat, Mac. He could've been culpable. I can't tell you how relieved I am that he wasn't."

"You were relieved? Seriously? Am I in the Twilight Zone or something?"

"Dick is Logan's best friend. They're family. They're each other's only family, Mac," Veronica explained calmly. "I didn't want Logan to lose one more person. I wanted the truth and I got it."

Mac sat stunned at Veronica's response and annoyed at her brain that kept telling her that this made sense. Her brain that wanted so badly to believe that Dick didn't actually do this. She didn't want to let go of her anger with him.

The doorbell rang and Mac was quick to move off the couch and to the door. She didn't want to think about what Veronica had just said to her.

She threw open the door without looking through the peephole, something she chastised herself for as soon as she did.

"Hey Mac," Dick said as he took in her rumpled attire. "I come baring food."

"Food?" Veronica's disembodied voice rang out through the apartment. Mac stepped back and let him in annoyed with herself for breathing in his scent as he passed. It was the same as always: sandalwood and a hint of something spicy.

Veronica joined them in the kitchen as Dick took to-go boxes out of a plastic bag. "I got eggs and bacon and French toast, and vegan pancakes with fruit for you, Mac."

"Yes," Veronica clapped in excitement. "Well done, Dick."

Dick shook his head, a small smile gracing his face. Turns out Logan was right about Ronnie and food.

"Thanks, Dick." Mac intoned quietly.

"Not a problem." Dick shrugged. "It seems like the least I can do."

"None of this is your fault, Dick." Veronica assured him.

"Don't be so sure about that Ronnie. I'm sure that at the end of this rabbit hole you're going to find that I'll most certainly be to blame."

Veronica's reply was interrupted by her phone ringing. "It's my dad, I need to take this." She answered the phone and made her way out into the hall. She'd put her father on getting the preliminary reports from the the fire department and whatever supplemental information the police department had as well.

An awkward silence descended over Mac and Dick without the buffer of Veronica. Mac tucked into her breakfast with unnecessary care being sure to keep her eyes off of Dick.

"I'm sorry, Mac. About yesterday."

"Dick," Mac looked up and regretted it almost instantly. Had his eyes always been that blue? "Stop apologizing. Like Veronica said, this isn't your fault."

"Not about that," Dick cut in quickly. "I meant about, um, kissing you. I'm sorry I kissed you."

"Oh." Mac spoke quietly. Why did that actually hurt? She didn't like Dick, so why should him apologizing make her feel like her heart just dropped into her stomach?

"I mean, don't get me wrong," Dick continued, his face down towards his empty plate. "I liked kissing you. A lot. I want to kiss you right now, but you don't like me. You—tolerate me, barely, and you certainly don't trust me, and I don't want you to think that this is just some random thing. It's not. I'm running out of friends, quickly, and at the very least, I want to be your friend again. Even if that means no kissing."

Mac was speechless. She didn't actually think Dick was capable of deep thought, but had to admit, she really didn't know anything about this Dick.

"Uh, I don't really know what to say, Dick."

"Say you'll at least try to be my friend?" The hope on Dick's face made her feel too many things to categorize.

"Okay."

Dick smiled at her in a way that made her heart speed up. She quickly looked down at her plate as a flush crept up her neck.

Veronica burst back through the door startling them both out of the moment. "Nothing from the preliminary fire department report. Well, nothing that we didn't already know. This fire was started on purpose is the only conclusive part for sure. They're still testing the soil samples," Veronica spoke quickly before coming to a halt in front of the two of them.

"Why don't you get showered and dressed Mac so we can go through Dick's files and view his security feed."

"'Kay," Mac nodded and hopped down from the breakfast nook, reaching for her plate when Dick's hand stopped her.

"I've got it."

Mac bit her tongue at the immediate snarky reply and smiled. "Thanks."

Dick's eyes followed her out of the room and stayed on the closed door until Veronica cleared her throat. He looked down at her and immediately recognized that look.

"Go ahead and say it, Ronnie."

"I swear to all that is holy Dick Casablancas, if you make me regret encouraging whatever this is, and you turn out to hurt Mac, they will never, ever find you. Capisce?"

"Yeah, I got you, Ronnie."


	6. The Rub

**AN: Hello readers! I can't thank you enough for your support and comments. They truly keep me writing and keep me so excited for you to get the next chapter. The stakes are getting higher and things are getting a little dicy in Neptune. I hope you enjoy. Also, I have sections and moments, some full chapters that are LoVe, and because this is a MaDi centric story, I haven't posted them, but they help me with backstory, etc. I'd be happy to post them if you'd like, I can even put them under their own little side story if you're interested in reading. Just let me know! I truly hope you enjoy this chapter. I have a feeling you're going to have a lot of questions... xo J**

* * *

><p>Clean and feeling human again Mac, Veronica, and Dick started to delve further into the goings on at his Manzanita residence the day before. Veronica and Dick watched silently as Mac made her way into Dick's security feed.<p>

"Uh, I'm right here, Mac, I could've just given you the password."

"It's way more fun my way," Mac replied snarkily.

Veronica sighed and wondered how long she'd have to be audience to this new start between Dick and Mac. She didn't know if she could actually take them flirting, no matter how mundane it was.

"Can you check the times before the fire, Mac? I know the camera over the front door was tampered with, but maybe the other cameras got a better view."

Mac nodded and pulled up the feeds for Dick's three exterior cameras. Mac sent different feeds to each one of the three monitors on her desk so that all three of them could look at them during the time in question.

An hour or so later, all three were annoyed and frustrated. It seemed like nothing was going to breakthrough on this case.

"Wait, what was that?" Veronica inquired, sitting up and placing a finger near the edge of Mac's monitor she was viewing.

Blonde hair streaked across the edge of the frame, a heavily ringed hand reaching into the view of the camera before disappearing again, the feed going snowy.

"What was the time stamp on that?" Mac asked.

"Eleven fifteen," Veronica replied.

Mac's fingers flew across the keys as she queued up the other cameras at eleven fifteen as well. They let the two feeds play and caught the shadow of a figure in one camera while the other caught a full back view of a woman with long blonde hair dressed entirely in black leaving the scene down and around the back of the house.

"No other cameras out that way, Dick?"

Dick shook his head trying to figure out who this was and wishing she'd turn just a little so he could make out anything of her that would be useful.

Mac took screenshots and cleaned up the images as best she could knowing Veronica would want them added to the growing case file.

"Let's look at the files you got from Dick's computer, Mac," Veronica grabbed the photos from Mac's printer and made her way over to the couch, setting the pictures on the coffee table in front of her.

Mac grabbed her laptop and entered into the partitioned files. The program running had been placing files, instead of corrupting them like most spyware was enabled to do. Extra documents had been placed as well as extra spreadsheets.

Mac opened a spreadsheet that contained rows and rows of values, a ledger of some sort.

"Do you know what this is?" Mac asked Dick turning the screen so he could see it.

"No, I've never even seen that file before. All my financials are pretty modernized. My main financial records are with my accountant anyways. I get daily statements, but they don't look like that. What even is that?"

Mac looked a little harder at the file and looked over the amounts. "They're small amounts, relatively. Two-hundred, three-fifty, the largest amount I see is seven hundred dollars. I really don't get what this is about."

"Dick, don't you own some sort of acquisitions company?"

"Yeah so?"

Veronica was perched of Mac's shoulder looking at the columns, dates, and amounts in each row. "Mac go back up to the main folder."

Mac did and what she found made Veronica believe her theory to be plausible. There were five other spreadsheets that Dick had never seen containing dates, amounts, and a three letter code.

"Do these codes mean anything to you?"

Dick looked closely, his body pressed tightly to Mac's side. Mac had to stop herself from shivering; he felt so good pressed tightly up against her.

_Focus Mackenzie._

"Yeah," Dick responded, his breath tickling the side of Mac's neck. He wondered how creepy it would be to place his face in the crook of her neck—she just smelled too good. "They're the abbreviations of some companies that I've bought."

Veronica nodded. That solved the last piece for her. "Dick, I think someone is trying to frame you for embezzlement."

Dick's face drained of color and Mac gasped. "What? No, Ronnie. Oh God. I swear I'm not stealing from these companies. I'm not. I am not like him."

"Dick," Veronica cut it. "I know. I know you're not like your father. That's why I said I think you're being framed. Didn't you say that a search warrant had been issued for your computers?"

"Yeah?"

"Yeah, I don't think this would've been conclusive, but I have a feeling that we need to take a look at your accounts. You haven't opened any new offshore accounts recently have you?"

"No," Dick muttered, his stomach in knots. Why was this happening to him?

Mac made quick work of looking into Dick's financials,; the small amounts of money that matched the values on the spreadsheet, now totaling just over one million dollars was attached to a brand new account under the name Dick Casablancas.

"I'm so screwed," Dick said as he sat back heavily on Mac's couch.

"No, Dick, we'll figure this out," Veronica said firmly. "Is it possible for someone to have created this falsely, Mac?"

"Ronnie! You just said you believed that I didn't-"

"I believe you, Dick, I'm talking about plausibility." Veronica paused and looked at him seriously. "If this account required someone to physically open it or pretend to be you, we can get more physical evidence, but if they created this virtually, then it could be hard to trace."

"This financial site is nearly unhackable, but not impossible. Someone really knew what they were doing. It's going to take me a while, but I can get this closed down and then we can make sure the money is returned to where it needs to be."

"Okay, Q," Veronica turned to Dick and raised her hands as if to say 'see?' "You work on that, I need to go home and then swing by the office. You two come by later, then we can all go back to Dick's and turn it over. I have a feeling we're missing something there."

Veronica left and again Mac and Dick were thrown into an awkward situation, but not nearly as awkward as before. The silence was punctuated by random cursing from Mac and regular typing on the keyboard.

Dick got up to pace the space. He couldn't sit still. The simple thought that everything he'd done to try to fix the Casablancas image (at least in the business world) could come to a screeching halt if Mac couldn't fix this was too much to deal with.

Dick wandered around Mac's space looking at photographs of what he assumed was her family. In the relatively short amount of time they'd been friends, he hadn't had the opportunity meet them, but he heard a lot about them. He smiled as he looked at a picture of Mac with her little brother: Mac was fixing his tassel while her brother attempted to bat her hands away. The photograph made him ache—Cassidy never got a graduation day.

Dick moved on quickly not wishing to get caught up in anything too deep, but quickly stopped in his tracks and picked up another picture frame.

"Uh, Mac?"

"Yeah?" She replied distractedly. She was in the home stretch. She managed to shut down the account and start the painstaking process of detouring and recoding the money so it didn't appear to have been gone in the first place. This is why she'd left Kane Software. She never got to do anything this exciting or dangerous or illegal at Kane.

"Why do you have a photograph with Madison's parents?

Mac's fingers froze on the keys. Oh god, she hadn't even thought of the fact that Dick would wander around her apartment and come across that photo. The people who'd been here before, who mattered to her the most, already knew about all that so she never even considered that it would seem out of place to Dick.

"Mac? Hello?" Dick waved a hand in front of her face.

"Uh, it's just a picture, Dick. No big deal." Mac set the laptop down and let it run the program she'd set to overwrite the traces of stolen money. She grabbed the frame from Dick's hands and replaced it on the shelf where it belonged.

"Do you usually take pictures with other people's parents?"

Mac ignored the question and started to move past Dick, but he stopped her with a gentle hand at her elbow. "Hey," he bent down a little to meet her eyes. "Friends, remember? You can tell me whatever. I promise I'll listen."

Mac shook herself out of Dick's grasp. "It's nothing. Just drop it, Dick, please?" Could she really give this part of herself to Dick? Have him know that she'd almost been Madison Sinclair-should've been Madison Sinclair?

Dick sighed. "I know we only just agreed to be friends, but come on, take me for a test run. I swear I won't let you down Mac."

Mac bit her lip and opened her mouth, a jumble of words erupted of their own volition. "I was switched at birth. Neptune Memorial made a mistake and sent me home with the wrong family. I'm really a Sinclair. They're my biological parents."

"Wow," Dick muttered after a beat. "How long have you known?"

"Since junior year of high school. Veronica found out, she didn't want to tell me, but I needed to know. I never truly felt like a Mackenzie. At least I wasn't crazy in that."

Mac stood and watched as the information passed through Dick. He didn't look disgusted or too disbelieving. He actually looked a little sad.

"Does that freak you out?" Mac asked quietly.

Dick smirked and shook his head. "I know this might sound crazy to you, but you're pretty lucky, you know. You've got all this family." Dick motioned towards the shelves of photographs. "even if one does involve Madison, you've got two sets of parents that actually care about you."

Mac felt her eyes start to prick a little with tears. She'd never really thought of it that way, just thought in the way of the life she could've—should've had. Now, she really did have all this family, and they were wonderful, for the most part, while Dick had...

She walked up to him and put her hand on the back of his arm, doing her best to ignore how warm he was, and the strength of his tricep, and how wonderful he smelled.

"Don't feel bad for me, Mac," Dick started flippantly interrupting anything she'd started to say. "I mean, I've brought a lot on myself. And I've got Logan, ya know, but sometimes, sometimes I wish I had a real family. A little brother who wasn't so broken. And the only thing I'd yell at him for was being in my room. If I had it to do all over again, I would've been nicer to Cassidy. I would've listened. I would've probably killed Woody myself. As for my parents, well," Dick stopped and looked down at Mac to see her eyes filled with tears.

"God, Mac, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to make you cry, honest. I'm sorry I asked about the Sinclairs." He pulled her into his arms and hugged her tight. He could absolutely get used to the sensation of having her in his arms.

"I'm not crying about that, you idiot. I used to think all you 09ers had such charmed lives, but then I just watched as everything fell apart for you and Logan and so many others. I'm just so sorry and annoyed that you didn't get to experience having at least one parent who cared. The Mackenzies didn't have much, and even though I always felt a little outside of who they were, they've always loved me. I can say that without a doubt."

Mac held onto Dick tighter, wishing he'd had a different upbringing, and surprised by how deeply it affected her. She'd never really thought of herself as lucky, just lost. Dick's arms wrapped around her tighter as if imprinting her to his body so he'd always feel her presence with him. He set his chin on her head and breathed in the clean scent of ginger and vanilla. He would honestly be content to stay there forever.

A loud ping from the laptop interrupted the moment. Dick reluctantly let his arms come from around Mac. He was pleasantly surprised when she squeezed him one more time before letting him go and moving back towards his laptop.

Mac bent down and looked at the screen, happy with the work she'd done and happy the funds were returned when something caught her eye.

"Dick, who is Melinda Button?"

MADI MADI MADI MADI

"Oh wow, this account's beneficiary is your ex-wife? When on earth did you get married, Dick?" Veronica asked as she looked through the papers from the now defunct account.

Dick paced the small area not bombarded with chairs in Keith Mars's office. That look was back in Mac's eyes, that look that said both pity and a little bit of disgust. Having to admit that he'd been married for less than 48 hours and he barely even remembered Melinda had probably set him back on the whole Mac front.

Just when everything seemed to be going so well.

"It looks like we need to take a little visit to your old ball and chain." Veronica said snappily, either ignoring the mounting tension in the room or trying to breakthrough it.

Mac hadn't said a word to him on the ride over to Mars Investigation. Her face had been stony and composed as she held onto Dick's laptop like it as her only lifeline. He hadn't tried to talk to her after informing her who Melinda Button was, just accepted her silence as his penance for being a stupid nineteen year old boy.

"I don't even know where she lives."

"Mac found her last known address."

Of course she had. Dick wondered if Mac was sort of tired of cleaning up his (and it seemed everyone else's) messes.

"I'll go," Veronica lifted her well worn bag off the corner of her dad's desk and started to move towards the door. "You two can stay here and track any other digital leads.

"No dice, Ronnie. If you're going, I'm going, too," Dick stood at the door with no intention of letting her pass until she agreed.

"Not a good idea, Dick. What if someone is waiting for you there?"

"I don't care. I made Logan a promise, and in case you've forgotten how furious he was with you for going into a Mexican drug cartel member's home, I have the email on my phone and can read it to you. He could've slit your throat Veronica, and Stu Cobbler could've shot you like he did Gia, and I will absolutely not lose another friend because if something happens to you, there is no Logan. I know you think you're superwoman or whatever, but damn it, Ronnie, learn to take some back up with you. Are you even carrying your gun like you're supposed to be?"

Veronica swore that between her father, Logan, and now apparently Dick, that one day she'd end up in a hermetically sealed bubble.

"He's right," Mac's voice agreed softly. It was really the first thing she'd said since finding out who Melinda was.

"Traitor." Veronica muttered. "Fine. You can both come along then, I guess."

"No," Mac started, "it's cool. I'll stay here and keep digging."

Dick turned nervously and looked at Mac. Someone had succeeded in setting Mac's car on fire. And now she just wanted to be left alone? "Mac-"

Mac shook her head and held out a piece of paper to Veronica. "Last known address and telephone number. Call me if you find anything or need me to look anything up."

Mac stood and moved to where Dick stood. "Can I get by, please?" She asked her gaze not quite making it up to his eyes.

Dick slid over slightly and followed her movement out of the office. "Come on, lover boy," Veronica teased, "let's go."

MADI MADI MADI MADI

"So, are you going to kill me for screwing up with Mac already?"

Veronica turned in her seat and frowned at Dick. They'd taken his truck, though large and unnecessary, was not quite as flashy as a BMW in the lower middle class neighborhood they rode through. "How'd you screw up already?"

"The whole having been married thing and not telling Mac. Kind of a big deal. She won't even look at me. And she told me her secret. I just honestly forgot, it didn't mean anything, I swear. Just another stupid thing a stupid nineteen year old did because why the fuck not?"

"What secret?"

Dick hazarded a glance at Veronica. "You know, about being switched at birth."

"Mac told you about the Sinclairs? Wow. I honestly don't think you've screwed up, Dick, I mean, you probably could've told her when you first became friends, but that topic probably wasn't one you were thrilled about. I don't know, but I don't think Mac is upset about you keeping it from her. Have you stopped to think she might be a little jealous?"

"Of a woman I can barely remember? I doubt it. You didn't see the way she looked and me, dude. It was like, I don't know, like she just found me repulsive. Like I was twenty-year-old Dick to her all over again. Willing to do anything without a thought. I know I was that guy for a long time, sometimes I still am, but I'm trying. I really am. And don't look at me like that, Ronnie."

"Eyes on the road, dude." Veronica motioned front and tried to keep the pity from her gaze.

Dick gripped the steering wheel tighter, took a deep breath, and let it out slowly. "Do you think Mac'll be okay while we're gone?"

Veronica smiled and looked off at the passing scenery. "Yeah, she'll be fine."

MADI MADI MADI MADI

When Dick and Veronica pulled up to the address Mac gave to them, they were both worried by the dilapidated state of the house. They'd driven further into the outskirts of Neptune than either of them really had before. Tract house after tract house lined the streets in varying states of disarray, but Melinda Button's last supposed residence was by far the most unkempt.

The little bit of yard space was overrun by weeds, though their cheery yellow heads did brighten the otherwise dead grass that surrounded them. The small walkway to the front door was cracked and uneven, and the wooden front steps showed signs of excessive wear and rot.

"What the actual fuck is that, Ronnie?" Dick pointed to the bottom-right side of the house where a trellis like thatch was swarmed by big, buzzing flies, and the squirming bodies of maggots.

Veronica moved closer, fear settling into her stomach. She'd hoped not to have to see another dead body for a long time. Not to have to identify another dead girl, and have to listen to a crass and unfeeling Lamb deliver what had to be the worst news a parent could ever receive.

Veronica crouched down between the stairs and the space under the house where the flies were the heaviest. The stench immediately hit her when a breeze blew their way.

"Oh god," Dick was bent in half somewhere behind Veronica. "Oh god, Veronica please say it's not—"

"We should probably call the sheriff's department Dick." Veronica didn't turn from the sight of the buzzing flies not wanting to touch anything even though she needed a better look. She dug into her purse and pulled out a pen, wedging it into the lose latticework of the underside of the house. She managed to pull a piece completely away, and reared back almost immediately. She thought she heard Dick gagging behind her, but the rush of blood to her ears made her feel like she was in a tunnel.

Melinda Button was dead.

MADI MADI MADI MADI

"Why am I not surprised that you're somehow involved at a crime scene, Veronica Mars?" Dan Lamb remarked walking through the scene flooded with techs and deputies.

"Well, someone's gotta do some work about here, Sheriff. Wouldn't want you straining that brain of yours to do anything remotely like case work."

"Watch yourself, Mars. One day, things are not going to go your way, and I can't wait to be there to see you stumble."

"Will that be before or after I've solved another problem in the town you're supposed to protect?"

Lamb opened his mouth to reply, but was cut across by a deputy pulling him towards the scene. Veronica sighed and tried to roll the tension from her shoulders. Dan Lamb was an idiot not worth her time.

Veronica pulled out her phone and started to dial when the phone lit up on its own. "Mac, you must have a sixth sense. I was just going to call you."

"I'm totally connected to you, Bond. I have some news, but apparently you do as well, so you go first."

"We went to the address you gave us for Melinda. We found her, dead under the house."

Mac gasped. "Oh my god, Veronica, are you two alright? How'd she die?"

"We're fine. Well, Dick is giving Logan a run for his money with how many times you can talk to the police in a week," Veronica turned and saw Dick talking with Norris. His arms were crossed and he was hunched over as if he wanted to make himself disappear from the moment. He'd thrown up once Veronica had completely uncovered Melinda's body. Veronica figured she'd spare Mac the details of that.

"We don't know the cause of death yet, the body was been decomposing pretty rapidly." Veronica finished in a shudder. She was really tired of finding dead bodies. "Any way, what's up with you, Q?"

"Well, I've been taking a closer look at the financial records and I wanted to double check that all the money got back, but it didn't. There's ten thousand dollars missing off the original amount and it looks like it was withdrawn about three weeks ago by Melinda."

"Shit. This is not good, Mac. I thought this was going to be a simple, 'Dick screwed the wrong girl again, so here we are,' but this is-this is something else entirely. Dick could be in a lot more danger than I thought. Did you find out any more about Melinda?"

"Yeah, tons. You want it now or when you two get back?"

"When we get back. Oh, and Mac? Try to go easy on Dick, and yes, I did actually just say that. He's really worried you're mad at him."

"I'm not mad," Mac's churlish response said otherwise.

"Alright. We'll be back at the office as soon as we can. I'm going to make Dick stop and pick up some food. Thai sound alright?"

"Perfect. Thanks Bond."

MADI MADI MADI MADI

"How can you even eat right now?" Dick's stomach was still roiling from having seen Melinda's body decaying under the house. Even the smell of the delicious Thai food was too much for him at the moment. "Aren't you even a little grossed out by what we saw?"

"This isn't my first rodeo, cowboy." Veronica held up her chopsticks like gun and pointed them at Dick. "Besides, unfortunately I'm getting pretty good with the whole dead body thing."

Mac squirmed in her chair and pushed around her veggie Pad Thai. When Veronica and Dick got back to the office, she'd done her best to correct her behavior from earlier. Dick looked worn out, his eyes rimmed with red, hair disheveled. He'd sat down heavily in the chair beside Mac's desk and let his head fall into his hands. She'd restrained herself from placing a soothing hand on his back. Has anyone ever offered Dick comfort before?

"You should try and eat, Dick. You'll crash like I did last night if you don't."

"I'd actually welcome that. I didn't sleep at all last night."

"Why?" Mac asked simply.

Dick looked up and her, his blue eyes piercing into her own. The way he looked at her made her heart stutter. She didn't understand it completely, but the heat was undeniable. "Lots of reasons. Memories. I fucking hate The Grand, you know that, and I just can't face the house. Not yet."

"I have an extra room, if you want, I mean..." The words were out of Mac's mouth before she could check them.

Both Veronica and Dick sat stunned. A piercing ring broke the frenetic silence of the moment. Dick reached into his pocket and pulled out his cell. "It's my lawyer, I should, um..." He pointed towards the entrance to Mars Investigation and answered the phone as he walked there.

"Wow, Mac, what the hell was that?"

"You said be nice!" Mac hissed.

"Yeah, like, just be understanding and what not. I didn't mean for you to invite him to live with you."

"He's not living with me. And it just sort of came out. He shouldn't have to stay at The Grand again. When you left, and the boys finally moved out of there, they said they'd never go back. I still remember the look on Dick's face when he found Logan in-"

Mac suddenly stopped talking and went back to pushing her noodles around.

"Found Logan where, Mac?" Veronica set her chopsticks down and stares at Mac until she started to fidget.

"I-I shouldn't have, I'm sorry. I promised I wouldn't say anything. Please, just ask Logan about it."

Mac ran a nervous hand through her hair, suddenly missing the length that could hide her face.

Veronica sat in silence, her brain whirring with the possibilities. "Did he do something to someone or to himself, Mac?"

"Veronica, please..."

"Sorry. I had my lawyer looking through some contracts and my divorce proceedings to make sure there were no loopholes and I've been trying to contact my accountant with no luck." Dick cut in not realizing the tense situation he'd sat back into.

He opened a carton of shrimp summer rolls, suddenly hungry.

"Uh, Mac," he began tentatively noting how the color rose from her neck to the tips of her ears. "Were you serious about letting me stay? If not, don't worry, I can manage another night at The Grand, but-"

"Yeah, I am serious, Dick. It's no problem."

Veronica watched the volley back and forth. Whatever happened after she left she and Logan have studiously been avoiding talking about. He'd said bygones and she was willing to let that happen, but now...now she needed to know.

Veronica opened her mouth to start her interrogation of Dick when the doors to Mars Investigation swung open revealing Norris and one other deputy.

"Norris!" Veronica greeted enthusiastically. "What can I do for you on this fine evening?"

"Hey Veronica, we're actually here for-"

"Wait, don't tell me," Dick cut in. "Another round of questioning by our illustrious Sherriff." Dick scoffed and pushed his chair back from Mac's desk. "Great, how long is this going to take?"

"Actually Mr. Casablancas we're going to have to take you into custody."

"What?" Veronica asked. "On what grounds, and where's your warrant?"

"He's being detained, not arrested, Veronica," Norris said holding up his hands. " Which I'm sure you know, having gone through law school, is perfectly legal. Let's go, Mr. Casablancas."

"I know that, Norris. No need to be snippy. What's he being detained for?"

Norris walked around Dick and placed the handcuffs on him, more out of procedure than necessity. Plus he knew Lamb would have a fit if Dick simply walked into the Sherriff's department as if it'd been his idea.

"He's being held for the murder of Melinda Button."


	7. The Next Installment

**AN: Thank you all so much for the reviews. I apologize for the delays. This chapter is another sort of in between. I had so many scenes, I really needed to cut them down, but not to worry, there's one scene in particular that will be coming back around. Chapters may take a bit because I'm doing NaNoWriMo and it's been going really well so far, almost at 20,000 works for my original work. I do so hope you enjoy this chapter. You probably have a lot of questions, and they'll be answered, I promise! I love your theories, your reviews, and your enthusiasm. I'm so sorry about not replying individually to each of you, but things have been crazy. I promise I read and love every single one of your reviews. So leave more! They make me write faster. ;) Oh, and I promise a big LoVe scene next chapter. It's big. xo J**

**_P.S. This is un-beta'd. I'm so sorry for any grammatical things I didn't catch._**

* * *

><p>"They can only hold you for twenty-four hours, maybe thirty-six at the max without charging you. I'll give your lawyer a call." Veronica spoke to him through the bars of his holding cell.<p>

After he'd been taken into custody, Veronica and Mac closed down the office, hopped into Logan's BMW, and followed the squad car down to the Sheriff's department. They'd had to wait about an hour before being able to see him. Neither Veronica or Mac were told anything, but he wouldn't be in booking without a warrant, and he certainly wouldn't be in interrogation without his lawyer.

"Thanks, Ronnie." Dick was on his back on the bottom cot in the cell wondering how the fuck his life ended up like this.

"Sure," she replied softly and turned to leave. "I'll be right back. Need anything in there?"

Dick turns his head and took in the image of Veronica and Mac on the other side of the bars. "A sandwich would be nice. Or maybe just bread and water. That's prison fare, right?"

Veronica rolled her eyes and walked out to try and find a deputy and get Dick's attorney on the line.

Dick turned away from Mac, not wanting to see whatever was in the depths of her eyes. In just two days he'd managed loathing, pity, disgust-he couldn't take it if it was something like fear. He just wouldn't be able to bear another Casablancas putting that look in her eyes.

"We're going to figure this out Dick," she spoke with more assurance than he was sure he was worth.

Dick closed his eyes and let the feeling of having someone give a damn wash over him. "Why are you so sure?"

"You're joking, right? This is Veronica Mars we're talking about. You didn't do this. We're going to figure it out."

Dick got up from his bunk and stood in front of Mac. He grabbed the bars over her head and stared down at her, bright blue eyes connecting on both sides. "How are you this confident im not to blame? You seem pretty good at assuming the worst. Ronnie, too."

Mac took and deep breath and tried to pull herself away from his gaze. "You're a lot of things, Dick: brash, unthinking, a little selfish, a little wild, and a shameless flirt, but a murderer you are not. Of that I am unequivocally sure."

"Yeah? Maybe you don't have the best judgement where Casablancas' are concerned."

Mac blinked rapidly to keep the tears from surfacing. Dick hit the bar with his hands, startling her and rousing the guard from just outside the door.

"Keep it down, Casblancas, or your guest has to leave."

Dick held his hands up in appeasement and watched the deputy walk back to the other side of the door. He leaned back down and rested his head against the bars. He'd managed to somehow avoid this in his wildest of years, and now here he was, trying I get his life together, and behind bars. Guess he could only run from the Casablancas genes for so long.

"Shit, I'm sorry, Mac. I'm an asshole. I didn't-I shouldn't have said that. I'm sorry. I just-this fucking sucks. And how can you be so confident in me, you hated me. I just don't fucking get it, okay?"

"I'm trying to be your friend, Dick. Isn't that what you said you wanted? Well, I knew you once, and the Dick I knew then couldn't have done this. You may have gotten married on a whim and somehow forgotten to tell me, but you're not capable of doing something like this. I know that in my gut."

Dick shook his head. "I didn't tell you because I barely remembered Melinda. It was stupid and ridiculous and I was pissed at Logan about the whole Madison fiasco so I just wanted to do something dumb. So we left Melinda's little sister with Logan to babysit and took of for Vegas. It didn't mean anything. Just a weekend of drunkeness and getting laid."

Mac winced slightly annoyed with herself for caring about something that'd happened nine years ago, before they were friends and before anything else that'd happened.

"I'm sorry about earlier today, I don't really know why I got short with you, but, I'm sorry."

Dick looked at Mac with the kind of expression she could only call searching. "It's alright. You're here and you don't believe I did this, I'd say we're cool."

"I got sustenance!" Veronica bellowed from the door breaking up the moment. Mac was glad for the distraction. Her stomach felt heavy and fluttery all at the same moment.

She didn't particularly want to classify what that could be.

Veronica passed the sandwich through to Dick. "I got in touch with Jeff. Apparently he's going to call Lamb and see how long he intends to hold you without a warrant. I have a feeling if he says anything longer than twenty-four hours, Jeff's going to file a writ to see a judge about getting you out of here."

"You know, Ronnie, for the longest time I didn't get what kept Logan so hung up on you. I mean, obviously you're pretty, but lots of girls are, you know?"

Mac and Veronica looked at each other incredulously. "Is there a point to this, Dick?"

"I guess I'm just trying to say thank you, in my own way, for caring about Logan enough to give a damn about me."

Veronica smiled softly and shook her head. "You're one of a kind, Dick. And you're welcome."

MADI MADI MADI

Dick was not a fan of long periods of silence. He hated it. The reason he often stayed around so many people making so many boneheaded decisions was due the fact that silence made him think.

About everything.

When it was quiet, he found he couldn't keep thoughts of Cassidy at bay. Had he ever fully dealt with his brother's death? Thinking about Cassidy led him down the path of thinking about how cruel he was to him, how Big Dick had encouraged that cruelty, and how his too smart little brother had always managed to exact the perfect revenge.

Dick wondered in the silence of his cell, not even the distant hum of the Sherriff's office could fill the void, if he'd been nicer, if he'd been better, would Cassidy have come to him about Woody? Could he have prevented that bus from going over the cliff? Would Cassidy have been alive today and maybe with Mac.

Mac.

He felt an incredible amount of guilt about having feelings for his little brother's ex. Cassidy had genuinely been happy with her, and Dick has been horrible to the both of them. He tried to block out telling her she was nothing more than Cassidy's beard. That wasn't even close to the case.

He remembers the early days of their friendship-tentative and uneasy. It was a total fluke that he'd been at The Grand that day. It was clear to him that she just wanted to be out of his presence as quickly as possible, but he'd spoken a quick, sober apology to her that stopped her in her tracks.

"I'm sorry about before, and the beach, but mostly about the cruel things I said to you and Beav—uh, Cassidy. I know I tried this apology thing once before, but I haven't had that much to drink yet, so I'm much more in control of myself. And I just wanted to say sorry."

Mad nodded and went back to the door to leave.

"Wait! Do you maybe want to wait until Logan gets back? Play a video game or something? You don't even have to talk to me if you don't want, you can pretend you're like, playing online or some shit."

He slowly found himself anticipating the times she came over to play video games, the way her scent would linger on the couch, how he'd stay there sometimes after she left not bothering to ask himself why. She didn't make fun of the times he broke down, didn't scold him over his drinking, but made her disappointment clear. And after a while, she'd began to care about him, genuinely. Dick hadn't even realized how disingenuous everyone else (besides Logan) was until Mac came into his life.

Dick sighed and rubbed his hands over his face. He finally understood what Logan meant all those years ago about finding someone you want to become better for. After that horrible night at The Grand where Logan almost didn't come back to them, his last spiral before deciding to get his life together, they sat and talked more candidly than they ever had.

Dick still remembers what Logan had said to him that night in the ER. "I can't be my dad. And I won't let this kill me."

"Why'd you do it?" Dick remembers asking, his eyes bloodshot from worry and lack of sleep while the doctors had worked on Logan.

"I just didn't want to feel anymore," Logan replied.

Mac came to the hospital when he called and sat with him while the doctors worked on Logan. She'd held his hand and didn't speak, not really knowing what to say anyway.

After that incident Logan was different, very different. He was more focused, he worked a little harder at school, and he started to train. It wasn't until a month later that Logan told Dick that he'd signed up for the Navy's deferred enrollment program, and once he was done with school, he'd be leaving right away for Officer Candidate School. When Dick asked him why, the only response he gave for years was 'to become a man someone deserves.'

Dick always knew that someone was Veronica.

Dick didn't like to think about any of that. Didn't want to go back to that time. Didn't want to have to remember Mac's face as he hurled cruel words at her drunkenly across campus after she broke his heart.

But had she really?

In truth, he felt like he hardly knew Mac and confused the ease of her familiarity with love, an emotion he'd honestly never felt with a girl. Lust, desire, need—he knew about all of those, but love was unfamiliar territory.

And from watching Logan and Veronica's protracted dance, it looked like a fucking nightmare.

But it was a nightmare he could contemplate for Mac—with Mac. Could he actually love her now, or was she just convenient again?

No, he wasn't still that much of an asshole, was he?

"I fucking hate silence," he growled at the empty cell.

"How'd you sleep?" Mac's voice startled him out of his reverie. He sat up too quickly and knocked his head against the bunk above him.

"Fuck."

Mac giggled lightly, an almost involuntary response before making her face expressionless.

He got up slowly, ducking his head this time, and walking over to the bars, his clothes incredibly rumpled. "I'm so glad you find my troubles amusing."

"I'm sorry I laughed."

He leaned closer into the bars looking down on her petite frame. "You really aren't."

Mac nodded. "Guilty."

"Maybe you should be in here instead of me. Or how about with me? Things would be a whole lot more interesting."

Ruddy color infused Mac's face and she looked down quickly at his suggestive tone. "I'm actually here to pick you up. Your attorney is in with Lamb with an order from the judge to let you go since he doesn't have a warrant. We're meeting Veronica at your house."

Dick let out a celebratory whoop and wishes they weren't any bars between them so he could pick her up and hold her close.

And maybe kiss her again.

"How much longer 'til I'm a free man, Mackenzie? I've got plans."

As if on cue, a deputy Dick can't remember ever seeing before walked into the room followed by his attorney, the jangle of keys the only noise now present.

As soon as the cell door swung open, Dick grabbed Mac up in a big hug.

"Dick!" Mac screeched surprised and a little to happy for the simple, random gesture. "I know you've spent longer time in worse places than this. How are you this excited to be out?"

Dick set Mac back down to the ground and gently grabbed her face between his hands. "It was too quiet," he stated easily.

Mac's eyes grew wide and she nodded. She understood, he knew she would.

Dick released her and stretched out his hand to his attorney. "I can't thank you enough, Jeff. This whole thing has been a disaster."

"No need to thank me, Richard, it's what I do. I will, however, recommend a good criminal attorney just in case things keep going this way."

Dick nodded and thanked Jeff again before watching the man and the deputy leave the room. He wrapped an arm back around Mac and pulled her into his side.

"Let's go, Mackie, I'm starving and I would like grub before facing down Ronnie."

Mac smiled and wiggled slightly out of his grasp, laughing lightly at his downcast expression. She opened her bag, and pulled out a white bakery bag from Cristiano's that had a flaky croissant sandwich inside.

Dick bit the inside of his mouth to keep from blurting out something stupid that he really wanted to say, but wanted to be sure that Mac knew he really meant it. "You're incredible," he stated taking the bag from her hand. "Seriously, fucking incredible. What do you want for this? I'll give you anything."

Mac laughed without reserve, happy to see his mood improving. "Nothing at all, Dick. But eat up, we've got to get to your house. Veronica's already texted me twice."

"Let's go, then." Dick said before taking a huge bite from his sandwich. Mac pulled the keys to his truck out of her pocket and dangled them in front of him. He shook his head.

"You drive. I'm really into this sandwich right now."

MADI MADI MADI

Mac driving had the added benefit of being able to watch her more than usual without seeming too creepy. She was exceedingly careful with his truck and it almost made him laugh. He couldn't care less about the thing, as long as nothing happened to her, he'd be fine. She could wreck it, tear the seats out, push the damn thing off a cliff for all he cared. She was the most valuable thing in the vehicle.

"Quit staring," Mac said surprising him.

"I'm not."

"You are."

"I'm not."

"Dick."

"You rang?"

Mac gripped the steering wheel tighter and pursed her lips. "You're making me nervous."

"You're doing fine. You look good driving this thing."

Mac thought she'd eventually burn into smithereens with all the outrageous flirting. She took a deep breath and let it out slowly.

"You're absolutely incorrigible."

Dick licked off the flaky bits of croissant stuck to his fingers, slowly, as if it were the best meal he'd ever had. "I don't know what that means, Mac. You can't use words over three syllables with me. I'm not that smart, remember?"

"Cut it out, Dick," Mac spoke quickly. "You're not dumb, you own an acquisitions and mergers company for goodness sake and you're a billionaire. You can't actually be dumb."

"You're adorable when you're riled, Mac. And I didn't say I was dumb, I just said I'm not that smart. Certainly not as smart as you."

Mac stepped on the gas a little harder, needing to get out of the confined space with Dick as quickly as possible. _He's just being his usual over the top flirt, Mackenzie. Don't get any ideas. Yeah he said he wanted to kiss you again, but this is Dick we're talking about. Manwhore extraordinaire. Keep it together._

"You look like you're concentrating awful hard over there. What's happening in that brilliant mind of yours?"

"Dick, stop."

Dick turned towards Mac and really stared this time. "Okay...stop what exactly?"

"Being an outrageous flirt. I get it, you're happy to be out of the slammer. But we're friends, remember? I'm not going to fall for your shtick. I've seen your act before, it's effective, but not for me. Soon, you'll be free to resume your lifestyle with wicked parties and lots of girls, so just keep it all until then. Okay?"

Dick's heart dropped. "Still thinking the worst of me, I see."

"What?" Mac was confused. Dick was the first to admit what he was. Why was he upset?

"I've told you once already, Mac, I don't have very many friends left and I certainly don't want any more pariahs in my life. But, if that's all you're ever going to think of me, then fine. I can actually stop trying. That works just fine for me. If you think I'm a dick, I'll just act accordingly."

"Dick," Mac whispered. "You've got to understand that this is weird. You know? This wouldn't be happening if your life wasn't being threatened. You get that right?"

"So, you think I just find you convenient? That I only like you because you're here and a girl and in front of me? What aren't you getting here? How am I not being clear? Do I need to spell it out for you? I like you, Mac. A lot. Why is that so hard for you to grasp?"

Mac's knuckles were white on the steering wheel from how hard she was gripping them. She hazarded a glance at him and his face made her heart sink. "It's just unbelievable, Dick. I'm not you, okay? I don't just jump into things without thinking. That's not me."

"This isn't a game, Mac. This isn't a long con. I didn't do that to you then, and I wouldn't do that to you now. I like you. I feel—I just feel when I'm around you. And it doesn't hurt the same way. Why can't you fucking accept that? I'm not here to hurt you. What can I possibly do to get you to believe me?

"Give me time. You said you wanted to be my friend. Then do that. Be my friend. Stop flirting and being over the top. It's not necessary."

"It's just who I am, Mac. I'm not trying to make you uncomfortable."

"Well, you are. You're moving at like, warp speed. You kissed me, and then you apologized for it—"

"I liked kissing you, I didn't apologize for the kiss, just—"

"I know, Dick. I get it. But can't you see? You don't know anything about me now. And I barely know anything about you. I mean, your ex-wife is dead, and I didn't know you fucking got married, but somehow you want to build some kind of sustainable relationship on eight years of silence and three days of being thrown into each other's company? Does that not feel odd to you?"

Dick sighed, his body doubling over in the passenger's seat to lean his head against the dashboard. "My whole life got turned upside down, Mac. Who the hell knows what's going to happen next. I'm just trying to seize every opportunity."

Mac's eyes filled with tears. "I get that. I do. But that doesn't mean I deserve to have you stumbling into me sideways. I'm here, and I'm willing to be your friend, but I can't and I won't promise you anything else, Dick. I'm sorry."

Dick turned his head to look at Mac, her hands were so tight on the steering wheel it looked like she was getting ready to pop it off. His chest radiated pain, but he wasn't stupid. He got it. Hadn't he just asked himself that question earlier in the day? Hadn't he questioned whether or not these feelings for Mac were real or made of the moment?

How unfair would it be of him to not allow her to have the same doubts, to come to the same conclusions? Dick guessed he'd just have to work harder to get her to believe he was genuine this time around.

"What can I do?"

Mac's grip loosened a little on the steering wheel once she heard his tone evening out. "Just, let's just take this a day at a time."

Dick sat back up and sighed deeply. "Alright. That's fine I guess." He paused for a beat and smirked. "So—does that mean I can still stay at your apartment?"

Mac smiled slowly. "Yes, you can still stay. That is still well within the friend parameters."

"Oh, are there are rules I should be aware of?"

"So many."

Dick laughed lightly. "Well, I look forward to hearing them all. Are they alphabetized?"

MADI MADI MADI

When Mac and Dick reached his house, they saw Logan's car already in the circular drive. The front of the house was a disaster. Dick was sure he'd have a nasty gram from the neighborhood association president in his email about the state of his charred from yard.

After Mac parked Dick's trucked, they started to walk up the drive to the front door, which swung open just as Dick reached to put his key in the door.

Mac and Dick jumped back slightly, Dick jumping in front of Mac not knowing who could be swinging the door open. He shouldn't assumed it would be Veronica.

"Ronnie, how the hell—"

Veronica held a finger up to her mouth and held out a piece of paper with the other that read: 'FOUND TWO LIVE BUGS IN THE HOUSE, STILL SEARCHING FOR OTHERS'

Mac gasped beside him having come around his body when she heard the word 'Ronnie.'

Mac, Dick, and Veronica split up and swept under cabinets and drawers. Look in light fixtures and under tables in each and every room. When they were done they found four additional bugs and a receiver set at the back of Dick's kitchen pantry.

Mac made quick work of dismantling the discreet bugs that's been placed in his home. Dick's heart pounded in his chest as he watched Mac make short work of them. He was even more puzzles than before: spyware, surveillance bugs, planted evidence-what had he done to deserve this?

"Give me your cell phone, Dick," Mac held out her hand, the disabled bugs strewn across his kitchen counter along with six SD cards.

Mac took the phone and walked over to the pantry where they'd found the receiver but had yet to remove it. A loud, awful feedback noise grew as she got closer to the box.

Mac went and set Dick's phone back down on the counter before going to remove the receiver. She turned it off as pulled out a USB from the side.

She held it up for Veronica to see. "I can figure who's doing this. They slipped up."

MADI MADI MADI

"How'd you get into my house Ronnie?"

The three of them returned to Mac's apartment so she could upload the audio files from the bugs they found in Dick's home. Listening to the files would take time, with each SD card about to hold about 150 hours worth of audio. So far the cards Mac looked at had about 75 hours each.

Veronica turned to look at Dick, one eyebrow raised as they stood over Mac's shoulder watching her work. "Why does it matter?"

"The alarm was on."

Veronica put her hands up as if to say, 'so?'

"Well, Veronica," Dick spoke tightly, "not sure if you've noticed but it seems that it's quite easy to get into my house and do whatever, so I was just curious as to how simple it really is."

"Dick," Veronica began slowly, "I've been breaking into places for many years now. It's sort of a no brainier for me. As for the alarm code, well, that was all Q."

"Simple overwrite is all," Mac added distractedly.

"So, someone else could've done that too, right?"

Mac nods. "Perhaps, but I don't think we're dealing with the world's most capable criminal element here."

"Oh, no? Well we're dealing with someone who's capable of murder."

"Yeah, but this is Neptune," Veronica replied off-handedly. "Almost anyone is capable of that it seems."

Dick lets that knowledge hit him and it doesn't make him feel any better.

"Oh my god." Mac interjected, sitting back from her computer.

"What? Find something?" Veronica asked leaning in but not understanding the codes and lines that ran across Mac's computer screen.

"Yeah, I think I found out who's running tech on this: Pete Comiscky."

"Who?" Dick leaned down over Mac's shoulder. _Don't be a creeper. Give her space and time. That's what she asked for. Prove you don't just think with one part of your anatomy. _

Veronica sighed. "He wasn't an 09er. Would've been below your notice. He helped frame Norris Clayton."

"The deputy who arrested me? What was he framed for?"

Veronica waved a hand. "It's not relevant right now, Dick. We need to get to Pete and find out why he's doing this."

"No need," Mac sat back up quickly and started to furiously type. "I'm going to leave him a little message. He'll come straight to us."

"Is that safe, Mac?" Dick whispered. "I mean, couldn't he like, retaliate or something? I don't know. I have literally no clue what it is you're doing."

"Oh ye of little faith."

"Seriously Mac, don't do anything dangerous. Please?" Dick's tried to keep his tone light, but is pretty sure he failed.

"He's not better than me at this, Dick." Mac said as her fingers flew quickly across the keyboard.

"What do you mean he'll come to us?" Veronica inquired not moving from her spot over Mac's shoulder still confused and impressed by the lines of code.

"He's going to be meeting us tomorrow at MI."

"Why?"

Mac smirked but didn't reply finishing up her last bit of code before she hit enter. "Because he's going to want all his money back."


	8. The Who

**AN: Hello all! I'm so very sorry for the delay in the latest chapter. I participated in (and completed!) NaNoWriMo! I actually have my first draft of my original work done, and I'm over the moon about it. Plus I went out of the country with the family, so this got pushed back even more. So sorry about that, but here's the latest installment. I really do hope you enjoy it, and I'm SO SO SO grateful to each one of you who review and send me PMs. You keep my hella motivated. In this, we find out a little bit more about what's going on, meet some characters, have a little LoVe interaction, and lots and lots of Dick pining. Enjoy! xo J**

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><p>Veronica's mouth dropped open. "What now?"<p>

Mac smiled enigmatically. "I found his payment source for this particular job. He wasn't very good at hiding it. I rerouted all that money to a different account. If he's halfway competent, he'll know where to come to find me."

"Mac, this guy could be dangerous." Dick croaked angrily.

Veronica and Mac shot him at derisive look. "If Pete is anything like he was in high school," Veronica began, "then we really don't have a problem."

"What is it with you two? Is Ronnie a bad influence on you, Mac? Why do you purposefully seek out dangerous situations? I don't fucking get it. I'm sorry." Dick complained.

"Dick," Veronica began slowly, as if having to explain this all to a very small child, which she felt wasn't far off the mark. "We have to figure out what's going on here. That sometimes means morally grey situations."

"I'm not talking about morally grey situations, Ronnie, which I happen to know quite a lot about. I'm talking about unnecessary physical danger."

"Pete isn't a danger to us."

"You don't know that! I made Logan a promise—"

"Yeah, I know. Your testosterone filled promise to your best bud, yeah. But Dick, I'll tell you just like I told Logan, this is part of the job. This is what I signed up to do."

Dick scoffed. "No it's not Ronnie. Sometimes, I think you're just an adrenaline junkie. You don't have to do everything by yourself, and you don't have to court trouble."

"Now wait just one second—"

"Time out!" Mac jumped up from her seat and made her hands into a 'T.' "Everyone back to their corners." She turned toward Dick. "Dick, Veronica has been doing this a while. Give her a little bit more credit. She knows what's she doing." She put her hands down and turned to Veronica. "Bond, you should get used to this. These overprotective boys aren't going to go away. And, he has a point."

"But—"

"I know, V, I know. But, just think about carrying your gun on the regular, would you? I know your dad would feel better."

"That's a low blow, Q." Veronica crossed her arms over her chest petulantly.

"Well, you and I both know you've had one too many close calls for comfort."

"That's what I'm saying," Dick interjected. "Too many unnecessary risks and now Mac is getting involved. It's like you two have no concern for your well-being."

"Calm down, Dick." Mac scolded. "I know what I'm getting myself into. I made the choice to leave Kane and help V. I don't regret that for a second."

"Aww, thanks Mac."

Dick threw up his hands in frustration. He walked towards Mac's kitchen and called over his shoulder, "do you have any liquor in this place?"

"Yeah, just check the cabinet by the fridge."

"So," Veronica started focusing back on Mac. "I'm going to go. Are you going to be okay alone with him?"

Mac rolled her eyes. "I can handle Dick."

Veronica smirked. She opened her mouth to comment, but stopped herself at Mac's glare. She put her hands up in surrender. "Okay, okay. My bad. No innuendos here, Mackenzie."

MADI MADI MADI

Veronica made it home just in time for her to pick up a Skype call from Logan.

"Hey there, sailor, I've got a bone to pick with you."

"I'm over two thousand miles away and yet I still somehow manage to get into trouble. That's what I call skill, baby."

"Yeah, you're something alright."

The image of Logan stilled for a moment, then got pixelated, then returned to normal. Veronica hated Skype, she hated that Logan was so far away and constantly on the edge of danger, but she couldn't be prouder of him if she tried.

"So, what'd I do this time, sugarpuss?"

"You failed to tell me about Mac and Dick."

Logan's confused face was one of Veronica's top five favorite faces. "Uh, sorry? No, scratch that, I have no clue what you're talking about, so I'm going to save that apology until the necessary time."

Veronica smirked. "Something happened between Dick and Mac when I left for Stanford."

"A lot of things happened after you left, Veronica," Logan replied quietly. "I thought we were going to let them be bygones."

"And we are," she cringed a bit knowing that wasn't exactly true, "but this bygone doesn't involve you and I, it would involves your friend and my friend who seemed to have been more than friends and I want to know."

"You, want to know something that doesn't have anything to do with you? I'm absolutely shocked."

"Mind the sarcasm, Lieutenant. Wouldn't want you to end up with another mark of insubordination on your record."

"Veronica," Logan stared intensely at her through the screen. "Do you really want to spend the limited time we have talking about a dick that isn't mine?"

Veronica frowned and thought about it. "No, not really. And no, that's not an invitation mister. Keep it in your pants."

"You never let me have any fun."

"When you get home, I'll let you have all the fun you want."

"Tease."

Veronica told him about the updates to Dick's case. He was good about not questioning her safety too much, but he didn't have a great poker face when it came to Veronica.

"Are you taking your gun with you when you put yourself into unnecessary danger?"

Veronica rolled her eyes and caught his deep sigh. "I'm not putting myself into unnecessary danger."

"Are you forgetting that I know you?"

"I think you're being a little bit hypocritical, don't you? I mean, you're almost always in the danger zone."

"How long have you been waiting to make that reference?"

Veronica shrugged, but eyed him soundly. "I've already gotten and earful from my father, Mac, hell, even Dick has given me an earful about my safety."

"Well, I'm glad someone keeps reminding you about that since you sometimes go into things without any thought to your own well being."

Veronica frowned at him, but didn't say any more about the topic. She wanted desperately to question him about what Mac said, about him doing something that made the move from The Grand a necessity, but knew he was going to be on a QUAL in a day or two. She didn't want to get into his head and mess with his focus, not matter how much she needed to know what he'd done to himself after she left.

"But seriously, Lieutenant," she spoke changing the subject. "How on the planet did Mac and Dick happen? They're so completely different, but you should see them together, it's almost cute."

"Aww honey," Logan tucked a balled up fist under his chin. "You really are just a marshmallow."

"You're avoiding the topic, Logan."

"Are you sure you don't still want to be a lawyer?"

"Logan."

He put up his hands in supplication. "Okay, but honestly I don't know that much, Ronnie. Dick talked about Mac a lot until they had that falling out in college. Sometimes he'd mention her in passing. He used to read that techie magazine though, some issues he even kept. I didn't really ever think too much about it. Thinking about it now, maybe he was keeping tabs on her. I'm not really sure, but you should know, Dick isn't the same guy he was Veronica. No matter how much you want him to be."

Veronica slumped in her chair. She wanted to know way more than anyone would tell her. She needed to protect Mac, and felt somewhat protective of Dick, and wanted to know all the things she's missed over the years with Logan.

"Alright?"

Logan's eyebrows shot up. "Alright? Seriously? That's it? You're capitulating?"

"Look at you with the five dollar words."

"Veronica."

She gave him a look and he sat back in his chair. "That's more like it."

"So..." She began tentatively not wanting to jump into the deep end just yet. "Are we ever going to talk about those nine years? Really talk about them?"

He shrugged and rubbed the back of his neck; his discomfort coming through the screen in waves. "If you have a question, Veronica, just ask it."

She shook her head and looked down. "I don't want to fight with you while you're out there. I miss you. And I love you, I just... We'll talk when you get home?" She formed it as a question because she honestly didn't know where they'd be when he got home, but she hoped it was someplace good.

"So we'll fight when I get home? Sounds promising."

"Well," she put on her best coy look, "the best part of fighting is making up. I don't think it'd be fair to either of us to have one and not the other."

"You always were the smart one."

"And don't you forget it, Echolls."

He sighed and stared at her for a long moment. "I really do love you, ya know?"

Veronica looked down, embarrassed that her eyes filled with tears. She decided what the hell, he needed to know. Needed to see that she actually cared. They had a long way to go with working on their communication.

"I love you, too, Logan. Really."

His smile lit up the screen and made her laugh.

"I won't be able to talk for a week, but I'll email you as often as I can, alright?"

She nodded not trusting her voice not to crack or tears to start rolling down her cheeks.

"I'll hold you to it."

"Have a good night, Ronnie.

"You, too, sailor."

MADI MADI MADI

Once Veronica left Mac's place, Dick and Mac sort of circled one another giving each other a wider berth than before.

Dick didn't want to go and upset her further, but he was scared for her. She'd just come back into his life, and if nearness to Dick had any sort of side effect, it seemed to be danger. Mac didn't really know how to deal with everything he'd revealed earlier in the day, and part of her absolutely melted at his streak of protectiveness where she was concerned.

"Uh, there are towels and wash cloths in the hall closet. And some extra blankets if you need them."

Dick looked up from the email on his phone, annoyed that he still hasn't heard from his accountant. "Oh, thanks. Are you—are you going to bed now?"

Mac shrugged. "I'm kind of tired, but don't feel like you've got to go to bed on my account. It's been an exhausting few days."

"Yeah," Dick scratched at the back of his head. "Yeah, I know. I just thought that maybe we could sit and watch a movie? Kind of like old times? You don't even have to talk to me if you don't want to."

Mac gave him a small smile. "A movie would be nice." She turned to leave the living room, leaving a confused Dick behind. "I'm going to go change. You pick a movie."

Mac settled in beside Dick, almost a foot of space between them where they placed popcorn, Oreo's, and assorted vegan candies. Dick didn't complain too much about the vegan butter on the popcorn or about the candy, and ate more Oreo's than he should of.

Left to his own devices, Dick picked out 'A Fantastic Fear of Everything.'

"I figured a funny horror movie would be okay with you, judging by the fact that that's pretty much all the movies you own. I'm really surprised that you don't have any romantic comedies."

"What can I say?" Mac said, her hand reaching into the popcorn bowl. "I'm not your typical girly girl, I guess."

"Nothing wrong with that, Mackie." Dick said reaching into the popcorn bowl as Simon Pegg's character displayed an impressive amount of neurotic charm.

Mac turned to look at Dick. "Really? All evidence to the contrary."

"What?"

"I'm just saying that your former girlfriends have been the epitome of girly. Madison for example."

Dick sighed. "Madison is the epitome of the word bitch. Nothing more than that. You're awesome the way you are, Mac. I'm pretty sure you always were."

Mac looked down at her folded hands and blushed slightly. When she looked back up, Dick was still staring at her. She opened her mouth to tell him to stop, but couldn't bring herself to do it as she looked into his eyes. There was so much tenderness in his gaze that she was happy to be sitting down.

He actually cared about her. That revelation was heady and too much for Mac at the moment. She wasn't even comfortable with the fact that he wanted to be her friend let alone whatever else Dick obviously wanted.

Mac turned back to the screen and sat not watching the movie, but thinking about what could possibly have changed so rapidly to make Dick believe he actually felt something real for her.

It wasn't actually possible, was it? He said he didn't bet on her in college, hadn't wanted to humiliate her and make her feel bad. It had been so easy to believe that he could do something like that. It was Dick after all. She'd held on so long to the old version of Dick that this new version was throwing her off balance. Everything she could count on Dick to be seemed mostly obsolete. There were still some very Dick things, but it was like he was actually trying. Like he was actually growing up.

Mac had no clue what to do with this Dick.

"Do you always concentrate this hard on Simon Pegg's movies?"

Mac broke out of her trance and turned back towards him. He held the empty popcorn bowl in his hands and stared at her.

"I asked if you wanted some more popcorn?"

"No," Mac shook her head. "No, I think I'm good. I should head to bed, it's late."

Dick turned to look at the clock on the wall, it was just after ten in the evening. He turned to Mac and nodded. "I'm not trying to make your life difficult Mac, I swear, and I don't want you to feel awkward around me. That's really the last thing I want. I get you're not sure about me, but please don't shut me out. I feel like every time I gain ground with you, I've inadvertently done something to make you cautious again."

"It's really not you, Dick, it's—"

"Seriously with the 'it's not you, it's me? You can do better than that, Mac. Give a little, please? Just a little? At least finish the movie with me before you go off into your room and forget about me for the evening."

"I'm not trying to hurt you, Dick, but I don't want to lead you on. I don't think—I don't know—if what you want is ever going to be what I..."

"I know what I want, Mackenzie, and you do too, but I'm not an idiot. Contrary to popular belief. You may never get to where I am Mac, and no, I won't be okay with that, but I at least want to know you can stand to be in a room with me for two hours without finding me repulsive and needing to get away."

Mac was taken aback by Dick's tone. "I don't find you repulsive," she whispered. "I don't dislike you, Dick. I just don't know what to do with you right now and I just feel like at every turn I'm being rushed to make a decision. You're pushing, and I don't like that."

Dick nodded but didn't say anything at he turned off the DVD and the TV. He gathered up the cookie and candy remnants, as well as the two empty beer bottles that sat on the table. He was rushing her, he knew that, but waiting had never been Dick's strong point. He had always been an instant gratification type person.

'Yeah, and look where that got you,' he thought.

He moved to the kitchen and put the popcorn bowl in the sink, doing his best to ignore Mac who stood at the edge of the room-weary.

"I don't want to fight with you, Dick," Mac spoke but didn't move from her spot. She watched as Dick washed and dried the bowl, embarrassingly amazed by this particular domestic skill. She wasn't even sure that Dick knew what dish liquid was.

He turned and looked at her after putting the bowl back where he found it, catching the small look of wonder that flitted across her features.

"You've got a lot of preconceived notions about me, Cindy Mackenzie, I get it. A lot of them are probably right, but you're also unwilling to try to see me differently. And now I realize there's nothing I can really do to fix that except show you I'm not a nineteen-year-old asshole anymore. I realize that takes time. I'm not exactly known for my patience, but I'll try."

He walked toward her and was pleased to see she didn't back away from him as he bent down and brushed hip lips against her cheek.

"Goodnight, Mac."

MADI MADI MADI

The following morning Mac had to drag herself from bed. She'd had a fitfully unrestful night of sleep that was bogged down by memories of Cassidy and Dick, where Cassidy had survived and Dick had been the one to end his life.

It didn't make any sense, but the subconscious mind wasn't always worth examining. It still left her feeling out of sorts and completely off. She dreaded facing Dick that day, but knew she didn't have a choice.

She opened her room door and was surprised to see Dick sitting at the breakfast nook, paper in hand, a pink bakery box open in front of him.

"Mackenzie," he said succinctly as he slid the box closer to her. "Assorted pastries from Cristiano's."

Mac opened the box and smiled as she saw a few of her favorite vegan options. She turned and saw that there was a half full French press sitting on the stove. She turned back to Dick and smiled so brightly that his heart nearly stopped.

"Wow, all that for pastries and coffee?"

She shrugged picking up a vegan crueller donut that was absolutely to die for. Cristiano's only made a dozen of them a day as they were so difficult to make and they usually went pretty quickly.

"Thanks, Dick."

"Yeah, you bet," he went back to his paper, but Mac was surprised to see a light infusion of color around his ears.

"So," Dick started drawing Mac's attention away from her second crueller. "How is this going to work today? Are we just going to sit around and wait for, what's this guy's name again?"

"Pete, and yeah, we're going to go to MI and wait. Shouldn't take him too long."

"Are you sure it's safe, Mac? I wasn't kidding when I said that Logan would fucking kill me if anything happened to Ronnie. And you being in the middle of all this bullshit isn't a fucking walk in the park either."

Mac waved a hand. "It'll be fine."

Dick drove them to MI and insisted that later they'd go pick up a car from Dick's place. "just take the damn thing, Mac. Until we can get everything sorted and you can get a new car. It isn't a big fucking deal."

"Yeah, it is a big deal, Dick," Mac insisted. "I don't want anything to happen to your car."

"Then take my truck, and I'll drive one of my other cars."

"No, Dick."

"God, no wonder you and Ronnie are so close, it's like you're cut from the same frickin' stubborn cloth. Just take the damn truck Mac. You've driven it before and I don't care if something happens to it. You need a car and you should have something safe. This thing is pretty damn safe. If you don't take it, I'm just going to go out and buy you a new car."

"You know how we talked about pushing? Well, this is pushing. And you're being heavy handed, Dick."

"On some stuff I'll give, Mac, but not on this. You need some way to get around. If you don't want any of these options, then you're going to be stuck with me pretty much twenty-four-seven. Think about it."

Mac grumbled the whole way to MI, which wasn't far, but her ire could be felt for the entire ride. Dick did his best to hide his smirk knowing that any enjoyment of her displeasure would be met unkindly. He had to admit though, he liked a riled up Mac.

Logan's car was already parked at the office when the two of them arrived. Mac got out of the truck and slammed the door, or at least attempted to swing it angrily, but given her limited height and weight, merely ended up making a slightly louder noise than usual. She marched in high dudgeon into the office setting her bag down noisily and logging into her computer, ignoring Veronica's raised eyebrow and moue.

"Morning Ronnie," Dick said barely keeping the smile from his face. He handed her the pink box with the remaining pastries and let his face break into a grin at Veronica's brightened state.

"Well done, Dick," Veronica whipped open the box and took out a chocolate stuffed croissant. "Now, what'd you do to Q?"

"Nothing."

Mac scoffed and continued to type quickly. Both Veronica and Dick were a little worried by the speed and wondering what she was actually doing. "Nothing he says. He's just trying to run my life is all."

"All I said was that we'll need to go and pick up a car from my place for me, and she got pissed."

"Ah," Veronica stated licking the flaky crumbs of the croissant from her fingers. "I see."

Dick lifted an eyebrow but didn't speak waiting for Veronica to go on.

"You're trying to be…helpful—accommodating—and Mac is being..."

"Difficult."

"Realistic." Dick and Mac said, respectively.

"You do need some kind of reliable transport, Q. Why not take Dick up on his offer?"

Mac's mouth dropped open. "You turncoat!"

"Just think about it, Q. You need a car. Dick's got cars. It's a win/win situation. Once we put a stop to whoever's doing this to Dick, you can go get your own car."

"Thanks Ronnie. She'll do it if you ask her to." Dick propped himself at the edge of Mac's desk and smiled winning my down at her.

Veronica pointed at Dick, a serious expression covering her mien. "Don't make me regret rooting for you."

The overall meaning was not lost on Dick or Mac.

The door to MI opened and the three occupants of the office watched as a tall, thinly framed man in a suit—that probably cost more than Dick's Tesla—entered the room. The suit was a gray micro pinstripe that was impeccably tailored capped off with black wingtip shoes.

"I should've guessed that the great Veronica Mars was somehow behind this," he spoke in a voice that had an almost reedy quality to it. The suit may have changed, but the person inside was basically the same as he was in high school.

"Pete." Veronica said shortly. "Long time no see, buddy. You've been keeping yourself busy though. Kudos to you. Out of curiosity, what is the going rate for telecom mercenary?"

"About five hundred grand," Mac interjected before standing up to face Pete. His eyes grew wide before returning to the blank expression he affected upon his entrance.

"Five hundred grand," Veronica titled her head and smiled. "Wow. Framing a person for embezzlement just doesn't pay these days, huh?"

"I have no idea what you're talking about," Pete said cooly, his eyes finally alighting the third occupant of the room; Dick.

Dick's face held a wry smile, but his striking eyes were humorless. "So you're the guy responsible for framing me? Must be a lucrative business. That's not a cheap suit."

Pete toyed with the Windsor knot of his tie before folding his hands behind his back. "I really don't know what you're talking about."

"Cut the crap, Pete," Veronica spoke. "We all already know how this will turn out. Just tell us who you're working for an why Dick is a target, and I'll consider what to tell our moron Sherriff about you."

Pete holds up his hands and opens his mouth to speak but is cut off by Mac.

"Are you actually going to try to convince us that you showing up here it's grand coincidence? Come on Pete, you're wasting all of our time. Where'd you get the money from? Who is paying you?"

Pete swallowed thickly and smoothed his hands along the lapels of his jacket. "I don't know."

"Pete," Veronica said fiercely, "we don't have the time to—"

"I mean I actually don't know. I work for a larger conglomerate of...how did you put it? Of technologically savvy mercenaries. We get paid through an anonymous source once we've completed the job. We never learn the particulars of the clients, just what they want accomplished."

"Charming," Veronica rolled her eyes and pointed to Mac. "You're not so good at hiding things, sparky. Mac was able to find you."

"Well, Mac is a genius. I'm not surprised."

Mac was a little taken aback by the compliment and amused to hear Dick's not so subtle growl.

"You're right, but that's not the point, Pete," Dick stood from the corner of the desk and walked closer to him. Dick had a good few inches on Pete and tried to use them to the best of his advantage. "When were you asked to do whatever the fuck it is you've been doing?"

Pete grasped his hands together, but stood his ground. "Three weeks ago. The client asked for it to look like embezzlement."

"Does your company have a name?" Mac asked as she sat back down at her computer and started to click away.

"No," Pete continued to stand where he was, not wanting to get any nearer to a ready-to-pounce Dick than necessary. "We're recruited. I was recruited out of USC. I'm really surprised that you weren't. You would've been perfect for this sort of thing."

Mac gave him a withering look. "I was headhunted by Kane and given a very nice deal. I only go after people who deserve it."

He raised his hands as if to concede, but his face never gave up his sense of smug satisfaction.

"How do you get your jobs?" Veronica asked as she kicked out a chair and motioned for him to sit down. Pete reluctantly did so after unbuttoning his expensive jacket. He sat back and crossed an ankle over his foot, affecting a studied air of indifference, but Veronica could see the cracks just below the surface.

"Through email." He held up a hand, "yes, it's anonymous and no, it's never from the same source twice."

"And what exactly was the job for Mr. Casablancas here?"

"I didn't know the job was specifically Dick. We're not given the particulars of each account."

"But you knew after you planted evidence," Mac interjected. "So you knew it was Dick. What was the set up?"

"To plant evidence of embezzlement against companies he'd purchased and to gain any audio evidence I could through the bugs that were planted in his home. That's how you found me, isn't it?"

Veronica nodded. "And?"

Pete looked at Veronica petulantly. "There is no and, Mars, I assure you."

"Somehow, Pete, I'm not inclined to actually believe you."

He said nothing, but continued to give off an air of indifference until Dick marched over to the chair and picked him up by the lapels of his very expensive suit.

"Dick!" Mac yelled out at his action, coming around the desk in a hurry.

"Put him down, Dick." Veronica added annoyed that Dick had chosen this particular moment to display whatever machismo he was currently doing.

Dick didn't pay either of them any attention as he brought Pete closer to his face. "Do you know how much shit you've caused to happen in my life. Stop fucking around before I beat the truth out of your like a piñata."

"Still a bully I see," Pete cringed as Dick held on tighter.

"Only when it's deserved," Dick let him go and Pete flopped back down in the chair. "And I think trying to ruin my life and hurt the people I care about warrants a little bullying as you call it."

"Hurt who? I know nothing about any getting hurt."

"What did you think was going to happen here, Pete? That Dick would get off scott free, you'd get paid, and your clients would be happy."

"I cared about the money and the bottom line. This is the highest paid job I've had so far."

"Well," Mac said moving to stand beside Dick. He turned to take her in and was momentarily taken out of the moment. Her skin was flushed and her breathing a little heightened. His mind wandered to just him and her in a moment they didn't have to share with everyone else, and discovering whether or not that wonderful flush covered her entire body.

He snapped his attention back to the moment and caught the end of Pete's dithering speech.

"…have no idea who you're talking about. I told you, it's all anonymous."

"Well," Mac began walking back over to the computer. "You did a really shitty job of covering your own trail, maybe your employers have as well."

"I didn't do a shitty job," Pete spat. "You're one of maybe two handfuls of people that could figure it out, Mac."

Mac tossed an incredulous glance his way. "No, I'm not. This was simple. Now, the emails, those actually take work."

"What emails?"

"I'm getting really tired of your bullshit, Pete," Veronica stood tall. Her five foot one frame somehow seeming menacing. "The threatening emails you sent to Dick."

"I didn't send any emails, Veronica. I've already told you what I did. I planted evidence of embezzlement and collected audio data. That's all. Nothing more. I have no idea what kind of threatening emails you're referring to. I wouldn't do anything that common."

"I don't think you're really able to hold any kind of moral high ground here, pal," Dick sneered, completely annoyed with everything about this guy.

"Does the name Melinda Button mean anything to you?"

"Vaguely," Pete studied his suit, there were now little pulls in the fabric. "I think her name was on an account of some sort that I opened. It was a part of the instructions, I don't actually know who she is."

"Fuck. Fuck!" Dick yelled and pounded his hand on the desk. "Listen here, you little shit—"

"Calm down, Dick," Veronica placed a hand on Dick's forearm. "You're going to get us everything, and I mean everything Pete, by five o'clock this evening, or I'm going to the Sheriff's department and turning you in myself."

Pete stood and outright laughed. "Oh, the illustrious Neptune Sheriff's department. Run by a corrupt moron in our former years, still being run by a corrupt moron now, from my understanding. Do you really think I don't have enough money to buy him off? I hear he likes fancy sports cars." Pete quirked an eyebrow, unfazed. "I'll give you the information that I have." He turned toward Mac. "Good luck tracking that down, but then again, you probably don't need it."

He started to leave the office, but turned before he made it to the door. "Oh, and I want my money back."

MADI MADI MADI

After he left, Dick fumed for about an hour, pacing the space like a caged tiger. He wanted to hit something, to throw something—anything. He wanted a good fight session, a beer, and maybe a good fuck, but two of the three of those things would have to wait.

He tried to stand over Mac's shoulder when the email from Pete had come in, but his constant presence had distracted her. He smelled too good, and he stood far too close to her—so much so that she could literally feel the heat coming off his body. At one point he leaned over her, his arms stretched to reach each side of the desk beside her keyboard, his chest pressed firmly against her back, making her fumble with the keyboard and with what she was doing. She'd yelled at him and told him to go sit down or go bother Veronica; he took neither option.

He pulled out his cell phone for the ninth time that day and attempted to call his accountant to no avail.

"Hey Ronnie?"

"Yeah," her muffled voice rang into the reception area. Dick walked towards Keith Mars's office and peaked inside. Veronica was bent over the desk looking over glossy photographs and what looked to be a many paged report.

"I still haven't been able to contact my accountant. I think we should go give him a visit."

She looked up from the photographs and squinted her eyes, her mind whirring with possibilities. "Think he's got something to do with this?"

Dick shrugged. "I don't know, but he's not the type of guy to not answer my calls. Even when he's out of town he'll answer, email, something. I haven't heard from him since this whole mess started."

"Mac!" Veronica called out walking past him to her desk.

Mac held up a finger before going back to her rapid typing; a black screen filled with bright green script that looked utterly puzzling to both Veronica and Dick. Mac hit enter and surreptitiously crossed the fingers of her left hand under her desk. So far, nothing was working to break into the system where Pete received all his tech jobs.

"What's up?"

Veronica pointed to the screen. "Figured anything out yet?"

"Nope," Mac shook her head. "Every time I think I get close, the stupid system boots me out and I have to start all over again."

"Have you seen anything in any of the work you'd done so far that would point a finger at Dick's accountant?"

"What's his name?" Mac looked over at Dick who was staring somewhat wide eyed at her. She waited a moment before waving a hand in front of his face. "Dick, what's your accountants name?"

"Stanley Bixley."

Mac shook her head. "Can't say I've come across that name. Damn it!" Mac exclaimed as another blank black screen popped up, the command prompt blinking in the corner. "This is going to take a while."

"I have faith in you, Q." Veronica smiled at her long time friend knowing that even though she was currently frustrated, this is the type of work she'd left Kane Software to actually do.

"Meanwhile," Veronica turned to Dick. "I have a task for you."

"Go get lunch?" Dick asked hopefully.

"No, well yes, but not now. I need you to take a look at some photos from inside of Melinda's house, see if anything jumps out at you."

Veronica and Dick walked back into her father's office, Dick threw a cursory glance over his shoulder at Mac, but she was back at work, typing away quickly.

Veronica pushed a pile of photographs across the desk towards Dick. He sat on the other side of the desk, his mouth slightly open in wonder.

"These were from Melinda's house? That dilapidated piece of shit we saw?"

The pictures from the inside of Melinda's house were ornate. There was high quality furnishings, curios that look ancient, large stand-up time pieces. The photographs showed a beautiful bedroom set and a catalog of the all the jewelry she owned. Expensive looking pieces he imagined must be real given the rest of the inside of her home.

"Yeah, I thought that was a bit odd myself, but I got to thinking, we already know that she was somehow involved in the plot to frame you, but maybe she wasn't able to hold off for her cut? Maybe Melinda got a little greedy and she got killed because of it. I mean, look at these pictures. If it was some random thing, why not take this stuff, too? There are some valuable things here."

Dick nodded and continued to look at the pictures. Nothing was making sense anymore. He just couldn't wrap his mind around the outside of the house and these photographs.

"Think whoever killed Melinda knew about what was in here?"

"They must've. I don't think we're dealing with very smart people Dick, just very greedy and potentially dangerous ones."

"Oh good, I was worried for a moment." Dick replied sarcastically.

"Do you know anyone that was close to Melinda that we could possibly contact?"

"She had a sister," Dick replied distracted by a photograph of the living room. "Look," he slapped the glossy photo down on in front of Veronica. "Looks like someone had a nasty habit."

The photograph showed lines of white powder, and a couple of syringes on the coffee table.

"Hmm," Veronica said sitting down. "Is this why you divorced her?"

Dick shook his head. "No, she had weird feet. What?" He said when Veronica leveled a mean look at him. "I was nineteen, Ronnie. Back off."

"Let's get in contact with this sister and see what she has to say. I'll call Norris and see if they've made contact already. I don't want to disturb Mac if I don't have to."

"I think you've met her sister," Dick said making Veronica pause with the phone in her hand.

"When?"

Dick sighed. "Years ago. I remember Logan saying something about it. Was it the third of fourth time you'd broken up? I can't remember, but me and Melinda ditched her little sister Heather with Logan to play babysitter. I was sort of pissed at him for sleeping with Madison."

"Ah," Veronica recalled that break up and the subsequent makeup before the last break up. "She requested a song for me on the radio. I met her in an elevator for like a second. I think she was nine, ten maybe?"

Dick shrugged and grabbed a stack of papers from in front of Veronica. He read the words 'Medical Examiner Report on Melinda Button' before setting it back down.

"How'd you get all of this anyway?" Dick pointed towards the assorted papers on her desk.

"I'm a P.I., Dick. It's sort of what I do."

He put up his hands in surrender and got up to walk back out towards Mac. She barely acknowledged his presence, so he didn't feel bad at all sitting across the desk from her and watching her work.

He had a feeling it was going to be an excruciating day.


	9. At Every Turn

**AN: I am SO sorry for the wait! Gah, my life has been absolutely crazy, plus, I already know this chapter is going to make a lot of you upset. I apologize in advance. Also, forgive the grammatical errors. I really wanted you all to have this yesterday (12/18) before I left for class, but I didn't make it. Apologies all around. Thank you reviewers! You're my lifeblood, seriously. And, to stop myself from being lazy with replying to reviews, I promise a sneak peek for the next chapter for anyone who leaves reviews from here forward. I truly hope you enjoy this chapter and don't hate me too much. Next chapter should be out much sooner than this one! xo J**

* * *

><p>Mac sighed in frustration. She'd been working endlessly for hours to try to get concrete data information about where the emails Pete received about framing Dick were coming from.<p>

She'd rarely met something that was this challenging.

"Stop for a while and eat, Mac," Veronica mumbled around her enormous bite of hamburger.

Dick made a face at her, but nodded in Mac's direction. "It'll still be there when you've eaten, Mackie. No need to make yourself crazy and hungry. No one likes a hangry person."

"Hangry?" Veronica asked.

"Hungry and angry. Hangry."

Veronica rolled her eyes and was pleased to see Mac push away from her keyboard and join them at the edge of the two desks that made the reception area. She hastily peeled the paper off her falafel sandwich and took a big bite, almost rivaling Veronica's. Dick didn't seem to mind this however.

"I just don't fucking get it. Whoever is behind this is really good," Mac said with a bit of awe in her tone. "You figure anything out Bond?"

Veronica shook her head. "Dick and I are going to pay a little visit to his accountant after lunch. See what's going on there. Before we go though," she wiped a bit of ketchup off of her hands with one too many napkins, "I'm going to give Melinda's sister, Heather, a call. Norris said they were able to get in touch with her, she was out town apparently, but should be arriving today or tomorrow."

"Maybe I'll go back to the original emails Dick was sent, that might be easier," Mac muttered only half listening to what Veronica was saying. She needed to figure this out. She'd never quite been stumped like this before and it was starting to make her a little crazy.

"Mac, cut yourself some slack. You want to come with us to see Dick's accountant?"

Mac shook her head and started to reply as the door to Mars's Investigation swung open. A tall, slightly woman with chestnut colored hair. She looked apprehensive as the people seated at the desk stared at her. She clutched her purse a little tighter to her side and stood up straighter.

"Hi," her voice came out softer than she anticipated; she tried again. "Hi, I'm Heather Button. I was told I could speak with Veronica Mars."

Veronica quickly wiped her hands and stood. She walked towards Heather feeling a little dwarfed by the tall, young woman, but pretty used to the feeling. "That's me," Veronica said as she stuck out her hand to shake. "I'm really sorry about your sister, Heather. Why don't you have a seat. How'd you know to come see me?"

Heather moved to sit at the empty chair in front of Mac's desk while Dick and Mac cleared away the remains of their food.

"I went to the Sheriff's department first. I met a deputy named, oh what was it?" She set down her bag and rifled through for a card. "Norman?" She asked unsure.

"Norris. Clayton Norris," Veronica corrected smiling slightly. She'd need to send Norris some cookies soon.

"I don't know if you remember me Veronica, but I met you once in an elevator. I requested a song on the radio for you from Logan." She smiled brightly, but as she turned to look at the other occupants in the room, it dimmed slightly. "Oh," she said as her eyes alighted on Dick. "I should've guessed you'd somehow be involved in all of this."

Her comment made Dick's eyebrows shoot up. He opened his mouth to ask her what she meant, but Mac clutched his arm tightly, gaining his attention.

"How is Logan?" Heather asked Veronica. "He was so kind to me, and really missed you. I wish I'd kept in better touch with him. You helped him with the whole Bonnie DeVille thing, I watched that whole mess play out. Are you two together now?"

Veronica took a deep breath and forced herself to sit beside Heather. It seemed like she hadn't lost some of that enthusiasm she'd briefly caught on their awkward elevator ride.

"We are," Veronica answered, "And Logan is well. He'll be home soon from his tour." Veronica assumed given how much she knew about Logan already that she'd know about him being in the Navy.

Heather nodded and smoothed her hands over the rough fabric of her jeans. Veronica took this in as a nervous habit.

"I'm sorry about your sister, Heather."

"Thank you," she nodded and looked down at her hands. When she looked back up she had tears in her eyes. "I hadn't been talking to Heather in a while. We had...we had a fight. A bad one. She wouldn't—" Heather started to sob in earnest, making the other three occupants of the room decidedly uncomfortable.

Mac picked up a box of tissues from on top of one of the credenzas and set them on the arm rail of Heather's chair. Heather looked up briefly and gave her a wane smile. "I'm sorry. I just—I was a horrible sister to her. She asked for my help. Said she'd gotten in a spot and needed money. She'd done that before, you see. She thought she was covering it up well when she came to see me, but I knew. Sometimes you can just spot an addict, you know?"

Veronica found herself nodding as she looked into the younger woman's sincere brown eyes.

"Melinda said she'd borrowed some money from a guy and that if she didn't pay him soon, she'd be in a lot of trouble. She always had some excuse for needing money. We sort of have terrible parents," Heather added seemingly out of the blue. "You know what my parents said when I told them Melinda was dead? Nothing. They barely even acknowledged me when I said it. What kind of parent does that?"

Dick sighed and sat heavily on the side of Mac's desk. He knew all too well about terrible parents who leave their children to their own devices, no matter what they are. He knew Ronnie understood having a deadbeat parent as well, but he was pretty sure he and Logan cornered the market on horrible parenting until now.

"Can I get you something to drink?" Mac broke in. "Tea, coffee, water?"

Melinda shook her head as she dabbed at her eyes. "No thank you. I'm sorry, I didn't introduce myself properly." She stuck out her hand to Mac. "Heather Button."

"I'm Mac," she stated simply and moved to sit back at her desk, facing Heather.

Heather turned her gaze towards Dick trying to keep the contempt from her gaze. "My sister was obsessed with you."

Dick rubbed the back of his neck in embarrassment. "I am really sorry about your sister, Heather. I didn't know she was living in Neptune. I hadn't seen your sister in years."

"I know, but that doesn't mean she didn't keep tabs on you. I used to hear about every little thing you got up to from her. Any time you were our, the latest girl you were with, the house you bought after you moved out of The Grand. She knew everything. Couldn't let it go. I told her it was sick to be hung up on a guy that probably didn't remember her name."

Dick said nothing, but got a weird tingling at the edges of his memory. Had he seen Melinda throughout the years, but like the self-absorbed prick he had been, completely blocked it from his memory?

"Heather, Dick didn't have anything to do with your sister's death," Veronica said with a note of finality in her tone.

"He may not have killed her, but what's he doing here if he's not somehow involved? She quit college, you know? That's really when our parents decided they'd had enough."

"Did you sister ever mention anyone else to you, even in passing?" Veronica asked trying to get back on track. She didn't particularly want the day to turn into a bashing Dick sort of event. And she was actually surprised by that realization.

Heather shrugged. "Most of our conversations bordered on incoherent. The last time I spoke with her was almost two months ago. She said she'd hooked up with some people who had a some kind of plan to make them all rich. She sounded so high, so I didn't think anything about it. All she kept saying is that he was legit and could get her places. And something about being in the business."

"The business?"

Heather nodded her head at Veronica's question. She took a shuddering breath and wilted just a little, leaning further back into the old, stiff chair.

"Yeah, he was a director or producer or something. I don't really know, like I said the majority of my conversations with my sister bordered on the incomprehensible."

"So, your sister never made any blatant reference to her drug use?" Veronica pushed, needing to find out all she could before going down the next road. She had a pretty good idea where this was leading.

"No, I was worried about her and I tried to get her to talk to me or at least someone, but she said it was all in my head," Heather broke down again and Veronica sat back, eyeing Mac who got up from her seat to walk to the small kitchenette area.

A few minutes later she came back with a steaming cup of tea and held it out for Heather who was still wiping away a few stray tears.

"I'm sorry," Heather offered as she accepted the cup of tea. She held it between her hands as she looked at Veronica. "I want to figure out who did this. I'll give you any help I can, but I'm afraid I'm not going to be able to offer you much."

Veronica nodded. "Anything at all you can specifically remember, the better."

Heather sighed and set the half full mug down at the edge of Mac's desk ."All I know for sure is that she said she was going to be coming into some money soon, and that she would pay me back, with interest. She always said that though, and I never got my money back." Heather hung her head dabbed at her eyes.

Veronica reached over and touched Heather's arm lightly. "Are you going to be in Neptune for a while?"

"I am. I'm staying at," she pulled out a folded brochure. "The Neptune Palms," she shrugged and stuck the brochure back in bag. "All I can afford right now."

"Would you like to stay at The Grand?" Dick interjected making the other three occupants of the room turn and look at him. "I could put you up there, it's—it's the least I could do."

Dick jumped up from his perch on the desk and pulled out his cell phone, not waiting for a reply.

—

Once Dick settled the room reservation, and Heather left the office, he, Veronica, and Mac fell into their old patterns: Veronica combing through the report and photos, Mac hacking, and Dick wandering around and being somewhat less than useful.

Veronica told him they had to wait for a little while before going to see his accountant.

"I just got the full report from the fire," she'd said barely giving him any real attention. "I want to go over it some more. See what kind of accelerant was used. Everything burned so fast."

So Dick had taken to wandering around MI, checking his phone every once and a while, and staring at Mac until she told him to stop.

"Eureka!" Mac exclaimed pounding her fists against her desk.

Both Veronica and Dick were by her side in a flash. Lines of code streamed across the screen. Veronica and Dick looked at one another and shrugged, not at all sure exactly what they were supposed to be seeing.

"I got in."

"I figured by your use of old-timey slang," Veronica mused. "What exactly is all of this though?"

"The backend of the company. It's not like they have some sort of public domain. I got in through the emails that were sent to Dick, which, by the way, were not sent by Pete. They were sent by the company—the system. There's no tag on where the photos came from though, but at least I can do some snooping this way."

Veronica nodded and pretended to understand what all of that meant, but knew she'd fail with her follow up question. "So, what's all this mean, Mac?"

Mac turned and grinned at her in a slightly dangerous fashion. "It means, I can take down the source code for this company, reroute payments, find out who was supposed to make bank from the account that was opened in Dick's name, and make a lot of people very angry."

"Uh uh, no. Don't do that. None of that sounds like a good idea," Dick said finally as she got to something he could fully understand. "What part of nothing dangerous do you broads not understand?"

"Hey!" Veronica and Mac said together.

"Stop acting like a dick, Dick. This is a good thing. Don't you want this to be done with? Don't you want your life back?"

"Yeah, of course I want those things Ronnie, but I also don't want to bring more trouble on figure this out."

Veronica shrugged. "Sorry mi amigo, but this is only the tip of the iceberg. I have an assignment for you. One that you're probably not going to like."

Dick sat heavily on the side of Mac's desk and held up his hands, waiting.

"Who do you go to if you want to score good coke and heroin in this town?" Veronica looked at him pointedly.

"Uh, I don't fucking know. I don't do that shit Veronica, god. I know you think I'm a fucking screw up, but I've never—"

"Relax, Dick," Veronica waved a hand at him. "I know weed is the extent of your drug use, but I know you probably know. Think about it."

Dick narrowed his eyes at her and started to open his mouth to refute her claim when it suddenly dawned on him.

"No. No. Absolutely fucking not, no. No goddamn way Veronica. Do you not remember what happened the last time?"

"Uh," Mac watched the volley between them with increasing interest. "What's going on?"

"The Guitterezes." Veronica stated simply. Mac's eyes grew wide and a bit of color drained from her face.

"Uh, Veronica, for once, I agree with Dick. No fucking way."

"Thank you Mac," he turned and looked at her squarely. Her heart stuttered a little at the expression on his face. "At least one of you has some fucking sense."

"We need to figure out Melinda's money situation. It's obvious that she took cash that didn't belong to her, and that it got her killed, but we don't know by whom. Was it her drug dealer looking for his payment, or whoever is setting you up wanting their money back?"

"So, let me get this straight." Dick held up his hand and counted off his fingers. "You want me or you to go back into the home of Mexican drug cartel members to see who sold one girl some coke? That has to be the worst idea I've ever heard, Veronica. No. We're not doing that. We'll find some other way."

"Do you know any other regular drug suppliers in the area?"

"No, Veronica, I don't. But, I do know some other regular drug users. Why don't we ask them first before going back into the home of someone who tried to slit your throat."

Mac gasped and Dick and Veronica looked at her. "What?"

"It was nothing," Veronica stated pulling her jacket tighter around her body.

"It wasn't fucking nothing, Ronnie. I never—Christ!" Dick exclaimed and got off the desk, walking towards the door. "I can't even think about that right now, I'll be back later."

Mac and Veronica looked at the still vibrating office door that Dick had just exited. Mac swallowed thickly and turned to look at Veronica.

"I knew about the cartel, of course. I'm the one who found that, but Veronica, you didn't mention anything about a knife to your throat. I'm pretty sure I would've remembered that. Does you dad know?"

Veronica shook her head and look seriously at Mac. "No, and don't think about changing that. You know, Dick knows, because he actually ended up sort of saving my life in a way, and of course Logan knows because Dick has a big fucking mouth."

"Oh," Mac sat back, throwing a cursory glance at the still dancing script running across her screen. "What did Logan say?"

Veronica's face turned a lovely puce before draining completely. "I don't want to repeat it."

Mac nodded and looked back towards the door wondering where Dick had gone and how long he'd be gone. Sure, he'd spent the majority of the day annoying her with his staring, but she'd come to welcome his presence. It was, not calming—not in the slightest—but warm. She didn't think that Dick was capable of something like that.

"Mac?" Veronica's fingers snapped in front of Mac's face startling her.

"What?" Mac replied somewhat annoyed.

Veronica quirked a smile and shook her head walking back into her office. "Want to come with me to Dick's accountant's office if Dick doesn't return in time?"

"Sure," Mac shrugged and turned her attention fully back to her still running computer screen. "But don't you think it would be a better idea if Dick was with you?"

"Questionable!" Veronica mused from inside her father's office making Mac laugh a little.

A few minutes later the door swung open, Dick coming back in again. Mac sighed in happy relief and was surprised how genuinely happy she was to see him. She was even happier to see him when she realized that he held three shake cups in his hands.

He set one down on the edge of her desk and pushed it forward, nodding. "It's a vegan chocolate peanut butter shake."

Mac grabbed the cup immediately and took a long sip nearly falling back into her chair. She turned her head as she watched Dick walk into Keith Mars's office to deliver Veronica her's. Mac smiled happily as the script on the screen started to slow, knowing that the work she needed to do was really only just beginning.

"I could kiss you for this, Dick Casablancas," she whispered as she took another sip, her eyes trained on the computer screen.

"So apparently food is the way to be able to kiss you? Good to know."

Mac jumped and turned to see a smirking Dick leaning against her desk.

"Seriously, you need a bell."

Dick smirked at her, but his eyes were serious. It made her her heart flutter and her stomach feel heavy. Her breathing sped up as he walked nearer to where she sat.

Dick looked away first, breaking the moment. It did nothing for Mac's state of mind or the current pace of her heart. He reached into his pocket and handed her the key to his truck.

"I'm riding with Ronnie to my accountant's office. I imagine you'll want to leave before we get back, so I'll just meet you at your place. I moved the truck in front of the office so you don't have to back up. I know how much you hate that."

He started to move away and walk back towards Keith's office when Mac's voice stopped him.

"That's it?"

Dick's eyebrows shot up in question. He shook his head not understanding what she was asking him.

"That's it? You're just going to walk away. You're not actually going to try and kiss me again?"

Dick shook his head. "No."

"Why not?" Mac practically growled. She was annoyed with herself for asking the question, but more annoyed with him for not kissing her. She felt like she was going a little bit crazy. What was he doing to her?

"Because Mackenzie," Dick began, his voice tight. "You said not to rush you. You said you didn't know if you wanted anything more with me, remember? I'm trying to honor your wishes Mac. God you're confusing."

Mac frowned and stood up from her desk. She walked swiftly up to him and stood toe to toe, tilting her head back to be able to look up at him.

"I'm not really sure what's happening, Dick, but..." She looked aside for a moment before meeting his eyes again. "I think...I'd like you to kiss me. If you want to."

Dick sighed and ran a hand through his hair. "Of course I fucking want to. Give me a break. But it has to mean something, Mac. What would it mean to you?"

"Why does it have to mean anything?" Mac shrugged. "Can't it just mean that I want this right now?"

She watched Dick's eyes go dark, then cold and hard. She'd never realized just how expressive they were, or maybe she'd never really cared before.

Dick took a step back. He cursed lightly under his breath and shoved his hands into his pockets. "No, that's not fucking good enough, Mac. I'm not interested in just right now. And you know that. So stop yanking me around."

"I'm not yanking you around," Mac replied her voice growing louder.

"Yes, you are."

"No, I'm not."

"You are, Mac!" Dick practically yelled. "You run hot and then cold. You're talking to me one minute and then acting like you'd wish the ground would swallow you up the next minute. You don't trust me, yet you want to kiss me. Am I just here for your amusement?"

Mac growled and opened her mouth to reply, but stopped as she caught Veronica standing uneasily in the door of her father's office.

"Did you need something, V?" Mac asked making Veronica cringe slightly.

Dick rolled his eyes and turned away from Mac towards where Veronica stood, bag slung over her shoulder.

"I can wait," Veronica said quickly and pointed back into the office. "Let you two hash out...whatever this is." She indicated the last part with a swish of her hand.

"I don't have anything else to say," Dick looked back at Mac whose face held a little bit of angry color. It looked good on her and made him angry all over again. "I'll just wait by Logan's car." With that, he exited the office, not looking back behind him.

Mac stared at the door for a long moment knowing that as soon as she looked at Veronica, she would be under interrogation. Why did she actually want to kiss Dick? Sure, the kiss they'd shared before was incredible, but she was still on the fence about him. So why muddy the waters?

"Mac?" Veronica whispered.

Mac's head snapped towards Veronica. Her face held no pity or sympathy, and to Mac's utmost surprise, no question.

"You'll lock up when you leave? I'm not coming back here tonight."

Mac nodded and waited for Veronica to say anything else as she dug through her purse making a big show of looking for her keys.

"You're just going to let that sit?" Mac asked incredulously.

Veronica pulled the keys from her bag and gave an enigmatic smile. "I don't think you'd like what I have to say."

"Well, now you really have to say it." Mac demanded.

"Dick isn't the guy you used to know. No matter how much you want him to be," Veronica remarked, echoing Logan's words from the previous night. "He's trying, and as much as it pains me to say this, and it does, I don't think you're being very fair to him. At least from what I could hear and what you told me. You're still ready to assume the worst, and that's your right Mac, but don't complicate things unless you're absolutely sure. Trust me, I know."

Mac's frown deepened and she sat down at her desk once more, watching the now very slow script finish its task. "I'll lock up when I leave." She spoke quietly.

Veronica nodded and walked towards the door. She paused and turned back like she wanted to add something, but thought better of it and quietly closed the door behind her.

—

Veronica and Dick rode in silence toward the 09er side of Neptune. Office space in that part of town was at a premium and could only be afforded to a certain set of businesses. The Neptune Chamber of Commerce made sure the businesses run on _that_ side of town serviced on the wealthiest clientele.

Dick's mind kept turning the conversation with Mac over and over. He didn't understand it or her. He'd made up his mind not to push her, to let her set the pace, giving her the time she asked for; so what the hell was she thinking asking him to kiss her? Practically demanding it of him when he'd decided to let her–

"Why didn't you just kiss her?" Veronica asked, a hint of laughter in her tone as she interrupted his train of thought.

"Because, Ronnie," Dick turned to look at her. "She told me she didn't know if she could ever like me like that, but she's trying to be my friend. I don't want some pity kiss from a friend."

"How'd you know it would be a pity kiss? Maybe kissing her would help steer her towards wanting more."

Dick laughed but the sound held no humor. "Yeah, cause that happens so often."

"It happened with me and Logan. Well, kind of—in our own way."

"Yeah, and what a lovely fucking train wreck of a story that it, Ronnie. So inspiring!"

Veronica sneered in him. "No, it's not a perfect love story, but it's ours, and it happened because two almost friends kissed one day under extemporaneous circumstances."

"Whatever," Dick said sitting back and closing his eyes.

"I know you're waiting for Mac to make some kind of a significant commitment, but that's really scary to do when you're not sure if something's going to last or not."

"I don't want to talk about this anymore, alright, Ronnie?"

Veronica shrugged and stepped down on the gas a little harder.

—

The offices of _Neptune Global Accounting_ was in the center of the 09er business district. The all glass façade reflected the fountain that stood in front of the building, the whooshing sound filling the otherwise quiet space.

Veronica and Dick walked into the main marbled floor lobby looking the part of interlopers amongst the obvious wealth. They were both dressed casually which was in shocking dissonance to the suited and well-heeled that crossed back and forth, Italian leather briefcases in hand.

Dick didn't really seem to mind, more than comfortable with his own amount of influence and power and not needing to be relegated to a stuffy suit to prove it.

"May I help you?" A busty red head at the main desk asked Dick, her smile a little on the predatory side.

"Yeah," Dick began giving her only a cursory glance before focusing on the set of offices behind her. "Is Stanley Bixley available?"

The red head shook her head, her mouth moving into an exaggerated pout. "He doesn't work here any longer."

"What? Since when?" Dick demanded.

Veronica placed a hand on his forearm grabbing his attention. He turned to look at her, but she was focused on the red head.

"Do you know who's going to be responsible for his clients?" Veronica asked pointedly. "See, we, my fiancè and I are planning a little renovation on the house. Nothing major, just adding an additional wing, and we need to free up some funds, so it's absolutely crucial that we speak with someone today. As soon as possible."

The red head's smile dimmed significantly as she looked at her computer monitor. "It says here that A-M clients are going to be handled by Mabel Akers, and N-Z are going to be handled by Brian Lathan."

"Is Mabel available?" Veronica's tone was falsely sweet.

The red head choked out a smile and picked up the phone to dial Mabel's extension. Dick looked at Veronica and shook his head, not quite sure why she'd invented the story, he had no interest in the red head before him.

"You can go on back," the woman said as she hung up the phone. "Third office on the left."

"Thanks! Let's go honey bunny" Veronica grabbed Dick's arm and pulled him along with her.

"Cut it out, Ronnie. I'm not interested in that chick." Dick finally spoke as they made it back into the main hallway of offices.

"That's not why I did that Dick, but good to know. I'd have to hurt you otherwise." Dick rolled his eyes and followed behind the tenacious blonde.

Veronica knocked lightly on the open office door, a throaty voice beckoned them to enter. A short, austere woman stood behind a solid oak desk. She look regal and distinguished, her hair tied back in a flawless chignon.

She extended a hand to Veronica. "I'm Mabel Akers." Her hand shake was solid and her hands ice cold.

"Veronica Mars," Veronica stated. The woman's eyebrow raised only slightly, but she gave no further indication that she recognized her.

Mabel turned her gaze to Dick who held out a hand as well. "Dick Casablancas. Why wasn't I informed that Stanley Bixley was no longer my accountant?"

"Please sit down," Mabel directed as she took up her seat behind the desk. She focused her light green eyes on Dick. "I'm so sorry you weren't informed, Mr. Casablancas. It has been a rather hectic day around here. We only just found out this morning that Stanley was no longer working here. Quit in an email apparently. So unprofessional, but there you have it." Mabel reached over and tapped a large stack of papers.

"I just received this a couple of hours ago. Jeanine, my assistant, was supposed to be calling all of Stanley's clients. I guess she hasn't made it that far. I'm not surprised. She isn't the brightest girl."

"Mrs. Akers," Veronica cut in, "do you have any idea where Mr. Bixley could have gone off to?"

She shook her head. "Haven't a clue, but I will say good riddance. He wasn't a very competent accountant, always pushing his work off on someone or the other. Our internal auditors had a field day with his accounts, he was almost always getting something wrong."

Dick frowned at this. He'd only been with Stanley for the last couple of years, but during that time, he hadn't noticed anything amiss with his accounts. He'd actually switched accountants because of a recommendation from Gia.

"Frankly," Mabel continued, "I'm not surprised he's taken off. He was barely reliable while he was here." She leaned forward for a stage whisper, "I think he was a pity hire. Nephew or great-nephew of owner."

Veronica sighed. Good ol' Neptune nepotism at its best.

"Any way," Mabel shook her head as if to clear away the conversation. "Can I assist you with something Mr. Casablancas? Perhaps now would be a good time to go over the figures of your accounts?"

Dick sighed and nodded, while Veronica excused herself to make a call to Mac.

—

Mac poured over the information she was getting from the data dump she'd acquired. So many names, so many Neptune people. She'd even found some things about Sheriff Dan Lamb in the files, scary things. Maybe Dick was right, she and Veronica could be a little reckless.

"No," she said aloud to the empty office. She was not going to allow herself any thoughts of Dick at the moment. She had a job to do. Not to worry about how blue his eyes were, or how much softer his lips actually were than she would've imagined.

The office phone rang pulling her from her momentary day dream.

"Mars's Investigation, how can I help you?"

"You're so professional on the phone, Q," Veronica quipped.

"Well, one of us has to be. What's up?"

"Stanley Bixley no longer works for _Neptune Global Accounting_. Apparently he quit this morning by email."

"Shit," Mac said simply. "I'll see if I can find some traces of him. Any chance you can get that email for me?"

"You're so good about anticipating my needs, Mac. What would I do without you?" \

"Luckily you'll never find out. Get me the email, and I'll work on it when I get home. This file—there's a lot going on here, Bond. You'll need to check it out. I'm going to take it home, my computer is much more secure there than this one here."

"Alright," Veronica said uneasily. "Is it—"

"Incredibly volatile and potentially full of land mines? Yeah. It is."

"Damn it. Just once I'd like to have a nice, easy case that avoids excessive amounts of danger."

"No you wouldn't," Mac replied.

Veronica laughed. "You're probably right. Any way, be careful. And I'll call you when if I find out anything useful."

"Will do."

Mac packed up her bags and made sure all the encrypted files she'd uncovered were no place on the computer at the office. She uploaded everything onto a 120 gigabyte hard drive she kept on her at all times.

Mac grabbed Dick's keys and locked up the office, setting out for home. She looked balefully at the huge, unnecessary vehicle with disdain. As she walked nearer, there was a fishy odor in the air.

Mac screwed up her nose and looked around the massive truck. Underneath she saw a long puddle extending in front of the car and around the front right tire. Mac crouched down and the smell got stronger. She had no idea what it could possibly be, having little to no experience with cars other than taking them for regular oil changes.

She pulled out her phone to call Veronica back and ask when she heard tires screech down the road. She looked in the direction of the sound and saw a large black sedan barreling down the road headed straight towards her.


	10. Close Calls

**AN: Merry Christmas to all those who celebrate, and Happy Hanukkah to all those who celebrated this year (I know it ended yesterday evening, but I still hope it was wonderful.) Here's the next chapter; now, it's not as long as previous chapters, but the next chapter is a doozy. It's already in the works and I hope to have it to you sooner rather than later. I hope you have a lovely rest of your day! xo J**

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><p>Dick rubbed a hand across his forehead. This was a complete fucking mess. Going over his financials with Mabel had led him down a rather precarious path, not knowing exactly how much to tell her, but making sure she knew about Stanley's siphoning of funds.<p>

"My goodness," Mabel breathed, her glasses barely on the tip of her nose as she looked at her computer screen. "And how long have you known about this, Mr. Casablancas?"

"It's Dick, or Richard, if you'd prefer," he lightly corrected her for the second time. "And not very long. Veronica," he pointed towards the hallway where she'd disappeared, "is helping me with something and we sort of stumbled into this."

"Hmm," Mabel remarked eyeing him closely, not at all fooled by the lack of information she'd been given thus far. "I see. Well, Richard, we're obviously going to have to let the head of the company know and do a much bigger audit of all of Stanley's accounts now. I'm glad you were able to find this before it got out of hand."

Dick barely kept himself from scoffing. He opened his mouth to reply when a harried Veronica burst through Mabel's office door.

"Dick, we have to go. Now. Something's happened to Mac."

—

Mac took a deep breath and groaned. Her head felt fuzzy, her ribs hurt like hell, and when she moved a little she heard the crunch of shattered glass.

She'd moved as fast as she could, her cell phone in hand with Veronica's number lighting up the screen. She'd run and ducked behind Dick's truck on the side of the Mars's Investigation office thinking she'd be safer there, but she hadn't been totally successful.

The massive sedan slammed into Dick's truck, pushing it down the small hill with impressive force, breaking the rear window upon impact and mangling the back cab of the truck. Mac lie prone against the glassy concrete and detritus from the truck which had finally come to an abrupt stop at the end of the road, rocking back and forth slightly as if it still wanted to go somewhere.

Mac was surprised when a shuddering breath left her throat. She felt hot tears on her cheeks and started to tremble under the weight of what had just happened. Where on earth did the other car go? It had to have been damaged significantly, how did it manage to just drive away?

The rev of an engine brought her attention back to the present. She hoped that the car wasn't back for more, she felt off balance; sharp pain shot through her left ankle, and her head was throbbing as she felt the adrenaline start to course through her body once more.

"Mac!" Footsteps came towards her, a little slow, but steady. "Mac! Are you alright?"

Mac focused as the person in front of her knelt down to her level. "Keith," she breathed a sigh of relief and tried to sit up.

"Hold on there," he put a cautious hand on her shoulder. "Don't try to move. An ambulance is on the way. Veronica called me. She and Richard are on their way here. They probably won't beat the ambulance though."

Keith watched as Mac let herself fall back to the ground, wincing slightly at the crunch of glass he heard as she did so. Mac started to close her eyes, but stopped as Keith told her to open them.

"You may have a concussion. Can't have you falling asleep just in case. What the hell happened Mac?"

"I don't know," she groaned and was grateful to hear the wail of sirens growing nearer. "I was just locking up and getting ready to get in Dick's truck to go home when I noticed a weird smell and liquid coming from underneath the truck." She took a deep breath. "I'd just pulled out my phone to ask Veronica about it when a car came barreling towards me. I just reacted, I didn't really know what else to do."

"A weird smell?" Keith asked, his head moving towards where the truck had been parked. It was difficult to tell now what had been there before as pieces of the truck littered the road.

"Yeah, a fishy smell. I figured Veronica would know, or she'd call Weevil and ask if she didn't know," Mac groaned a little, her eyes drooping.

"Eyes open, Mac." Keith commanded. "Sounds like brake fluid may have been leaking."

"Hmm…" Mac breathed deeply and fought to keep her eyes open.

The sound of tires and the siren slowing down came as a relief to Mac. Keith stood by as they paramedics rushed over to Mac, one with a back board and bag in hand, the other wheeling a gurney down from the ambulance. They asked her questions that she quietly answered while shining a pin light in her eyes and taking her blood pressure. Didn't they know she'd been in an accident? Why were they being so gruff?

She groaned as the two strapping paramedics lifted her gingerly onto the back board before lifting her onto a gurney to make the trip to Neptune Memorial.

"I'll call you parents Mac and let them know. And I'll tell Dick and Veronica to go straight to the hospital."

Mac tried to shake her head no about her parents, but felt that fighting that would be futile.

—

Veronica rerouted Logan's car once she got the call from her dad that Mac was being taken to the hospital.

"She looked to be okay, Veronica. She may have a concussion though. She was really tired, kept wanting to close her eyes. I think she's going to be fine. It could've been much worse from what I saw."

Dick took a shuddering breath. Keith's voice did nothing to reassure Dick who hadn't spoken a word since Veronica abruptly burst into Mabel's office.

He didn't know what he would do if Mac wasn't okay. He couldn't even think about it. It made him sick to his stomach to think about it, the whole situation. If these assholes wanted his money in exchange for leaving Mac the hell alone, he'd give it to them.

"This isn't your fault, Dick," Veronica said quietly after hanging up the bluetooth call with her father.

Dick continued to look out of the window, not acknowledging Veronica at all. He didn't need to be talked down, he knew where the blame lie, and as usual it was squarely on his shoulders. Now he'd have to fix it.

"I'll give them whatever they want." He said some time later breaking the silence of the car.

"What?" Veronica raised an eyebrow.

"If they want money, or whatever the fuck they want, a million god damn dollars, I don't give a fuck. As long as they leave Mac the hell alone. I'm not playing this game with them anymore."

"Dick, I think it's more serious than money at this point, don't you?"

"I don't fucking care, Veronica!" Dick seethed, his hands balled into fists. He had the urge to punch something, shatter a window, break his own hand until he couldn't feel anything anymore, but he knew that wouldn't actually do any good, and it'd probably just piss off Veronica.

"Something happened to Mac because of this and me. It's the one thing I can't tolerate and I'm sure whatever fuck is behind this knows that fact very well. I'll give them whatever they want."

Veronica said nothing as she pulled into the parking lot of Neptune Memorial. Dick had the door open and was walking towards the emergency room entrance before Veronica had even put the car in park.

She jogged slightly to catch up with him, cursing her height silently in her head. When Veronica entered Dick was already at the desk speaking determinedly to the woman seated there.

"...Cindy Mackenzine. She should already be here."

"I'm sorry, I can't just hand out information, sir. Who are you in relation to the patient?""

"He's her fiancé," Veronica said instantly throwing a sharp look at Dick.

In this instance, Dick was exceptionally grateful for Veronica's ability to contort the truth to her own purposes.

The woman at the desk turned to her computer, tapping away at her keyboard. "It looks like she's being taken in for some testing. A CT scan is about to be done, so she's not been assigned a room. You'll have to wait in the lobby. I'll make sure to put your information down when she's in a room. What's your name?"

Dick didn't answer, his mind full of questions about why she would need a CT scan, and what on earth that even was. He vaguely hears Veronica tell the woman his name and then pull him towards a lobby full of old maroon chairs that squeaked noisily as they sat down.

"Dick," Veronica placed a hand on his shoulder. "She'll be alright. Do you want a coffee or some food or anything?"

Dick shook his head and moved to shake her hand off of his shoulder. "Don't make promises, Ronnie. We don't know if she's fine, just that she's in testing. Maybe in pain, but in some kind of state that requires whatever the hell a CT scan is."

"Generally its for some kind of head trauma," Veronica told him quietly.

Dick brought his hands to him head, fiercely scrubbing his hands across his face. "Fuck." He pressed the heels of his hands into his eyes, annoyed at the stinging sensation that'd sprung up behind them.

"They're probably just doing it to be sure, Dick. My dad said she looked alright. They're going to do their best to rule out any serious injuries."

Dick turned towards Veronica, his eyes blazing with the fear of what could be, ready to lay into her when the frantic voice of a women pulled him from his task.

He looked over to the main emergency room desk where a woman was talking both quickly and extremely loud.

"Cindy Mackenzie. M-A-C-K-E-N-Z-I-E. I got a call from Keith Mars that she was being brought here and I need to know where she is and what's happening," the woman shook a little as she spoke, the man behind her clutching tightly to her shoulder.

"Mr. and Mrs. Mackenzie?" Veronica had started to move closer as she heard the woman speak. The older blond woman turned towards the voice and cried a little as she launched herself towards Veronica.

"What happened?" Natalie Mackenzie clutched tightly at Veronica's jacket. "I didn't stay on the phone with your dad long enough to find out anything more than Cindy was being brought to this awful place."

Dick's eyebrows shot up as this information came spilling forth from Natalie Mackenzie until he remembered about Mac being switched at birth.

"There was an accident out in front of the office," Veronica's tone was soothing, she hoped, as she calmly informed the Mackenzies what was happening. "We don't know anything yet other than they took her for a CT scan. She may have a concussion, but I really don't know. They wouldn't tell me anything."

Natalie's face went hard as she turned to her husband. "Go find out Sam. Threaten if you have to, I don't want Cindy to be here any longer than absolutely necessary."

Sam nodded his head and went back to the desk to ask about Mac. Natalie turned her eyes to the man standing beside Veronica for the first time.

"And who are you?" She asked him, not unkindly, but purposefully.

"Uh, I'm Richard…Dick. Casablancas." he said offering up a hand.

Natalie's eyes went wide as she realized he was _that_ Casablancas. She pursed her lips slightly, but shook his proffered hand. "Yes, I think maybe Cindy's mentioned you before. What are you doing here?"

Dick looked completely lost. He couldn't tell her what had actually happened, she'd hate him, and he wouldn't blame her a stitch. "Mac's a...friend. I was with Ronnie when we found out about her."

Natalie eyed him critically, but didn't reply. Sam came and joined their group, his eyes going to Dick almost immediately.

"They're taking Cindy to a room now, we should be able to see her shortly. I was told they'd come and get me and to wait over here with her fiancé."

_Shit._ Dick tried not flinch under Sam's direct gaze. "You're her fiancé? Why wouldn't Cindy tell us that? Who are you?"

"It's my fault, Mr. Mackenzie. I had to think of something quickly in order to find out anything about Mac. I apologize. Mac and Dick are not together like that."

Dick should have felt relief as Sam's eyes got a little softer, but all he felt was a little colder, and a lot lonely.

"Well," Sam started, appeased, "I just didn't want to find out Cindy got engaged and somehow forgot to tell her parents. And that I'd never met the guy."

"This is Richard Casablancas, dear." Natalie said to Sam.

Sam nodded. He didn't offer a hand to Dick and continued to give him an appraising look.

—

An hour of stilted silence passed before they were told that Mac was in a room and able to see visitors.

The Mackenzies went first leaving Veronica and Dick alone in a much lighter silence.

Dick stood abruptly when he saw Natalie coming around the corner dabbing at her eyes, Sam holding her close to his side.

"How is she?" Dick whispered, his tone urgent.

"She's fine. Really. Except she's stubborn. Doesn't want to come home so I can take care of her. Insists that she'll be fine in her apartment." Natalie wiped at her eyes once more and Dick can see that she was a little flushed around her collar.

"You don't have to worry about her, Mrs. Mackenzie. We'll make sure she's well looked after," Veronica spoke assuredly.

"Thank you," Natalie patted Veronica's arm. "Cindy assured us that you would. That you both would." Natalie looked askance at Dick, unsure of where this man stood in Cindy's life, and whether or not she was comfortable with another Casablancas. "You will let us know if anything happens, yes? Sometimes Cindy doesn't like to tell us if she needs something. I don't know why, but there you have it."

"We'll be sure to let you know if anything develops, Mrs. Mackenzie," Dick said quickly hoping maybe to get fewer of Natalie's weary looks.

Natalie nodded, but otherwise her expression was closed. "Thank you, Richard."

Veronica and Dick said their final goodbyes and finally made their way back to Mac's room. Mac had a tiny bandage on the side of her head, a few cuts above the collar of her hospital gown, and an industrial looking ankle contraption around her left foot.

"How's it going, Mac?" Veronica moved over and sat on the edge of the bed.

"Get me out of here, Bond. There's a reason I avoid doctors and hospitals. I hate feeling like a walking science experiment." Mac wearily eyed Veronica, her voice steady. She glanced toward the door where Dick stood uncomfortably in the doorway.

Veronica's eyes tracked to where Mac stared at Dick. "What did the doctor say?" Veronica asked breaking into the moment. She needed to know what Mac saw, what happened, but figured she'd deal with that when Dick wasn't hovering.

"No concussion, but I should go easy for the next few days. I fractured my ankle, but nothing too major. Scrapes and a few bruises. I'm just really tired. They wouldn't let me sleep until the scans came back, then my parents came in, now you guys. Not that I'm not happy to see you, but I want my clothes and my bed."

Veronica nodded and looked over her shoulder to where Dick still hovered. "I'll go see when you can blow this Popsicle stand. Don't go anywhere."

"Haha," Mac quipped her eyes coming to rest on Dick again.

Veronica got up from her perch and left the two of them to their own devices. Dick shoved his hands into his pockets and stared.

"Are you just going to linger by the door and not say anything."

Dick's face gathered in a scowl before he quickly made it to her bedside. Without pause, he leaned down and kissed her. It wasn't gentle; it was possessive and totally consuming. Mac's body bowed to meet his, his hands tangled in her hair, her hands clutched at his shirt. Wetness his her cheek and made her rear back slightly.

Dick's eyes were tightly closed and he didn't allow her to pull away completely.

"Dick..."

"No," Dick shook his head and his lips descended on hers once again. The kisses this time were softer, less hurried, but somehow more powerful. It was in that moment that the full force of this thing that sat between them hit her. She grabbed onto his shirt tighter and pulled him closer making him lean more precariously over the bed.

Dick ended the kiss by brushing his closed lips over hers, then her chin, each of her cheeks, and her forehead. Mac reached up to dry the quiet tears that'd fallen against his cheeks.

"Enough is enough, Mac." Dick spoke a little out of breath. "If you find out what these people want, we give it to them. No questions asked. No more digging into things we have no business in, no more corrupt cops, no more drug lords, and especially no more super spy shit, alright?"

Mac looked at him. He was serious. He meant it, and for whatever reason, that made her really angry. "No, Dick."

Dick let go of her face and stood up fully. "What do you mean 'no?'"

"Just that, Richard Casblancas. I mean no. No, we don't just give into what these people want. They're not getting away with trying to hurt you."

"You could've been seriously hurt! They could've killed you twice over now. You just want me to be okay with that?" Dick yelled not caring that he could be clearly heard by anyone.

"I wasn't though, Dick. I'm fine. But you may not be. I can't just let this go and let someone hurt you. Don't you get that?"

"Don't you get that if something happens to you because of me, I won't survive it? I won't. I almost lost my mind when Veronica told me something had happened to you. I'm not going to let you go headlong into danger."

"Let me?" Mac glowered at him.

"Don't get all women's lib mad at me. I'm trying to protect you. I can't...I can't..." Dick stuttered and back into the chair that was beside her bed. He sat heavily, the weight of her being alright finally setting in.

Mac reached over and grabbed one of his hands. "I know you're worried. I am too. I'm not going to go into anything without thinking it through, and I'm certainly not planning to do anything really dangerous." Dick raised an eyebrow at her but didn't comment on the number of caveats that were in her sentence.

"I know how you feel, Dick. I do. I don't want anything to happen to you either. That's why we can't just give them what they want."

"You don't know."

Mac scrunched her face. "What?"

He grabbed her hand tighter and brought it up to his lips. "You don't know how I feel. You don't get it. I barely get it how could you?"

Mac and Dick stared at one another, the weight of everything between them filling the space 'til near overflowing. Tears gathered in Mac's eyes and she smiled tentatively at him. "Maybe not, but I'm willing to try. To learn."

Dick shook his head. "Let's not...not here. I want to know that you actually mean it and you're not being influenced by being in a hospital bed and me crying on you like a bitch."

Mac laughed, a true genuine and unexpected laugh. "Alright."

Dick gaped. "Wow, that was super easy. You must not be one hundred percent up here," he replied lightly tapping the side of her head, mindful of the bandage there.

She pulled at his hand until he stood over her bed one more. She turned her face up to his, her eyes going soft, her hand clutched in his shirt, stretching the fabric. "Kiss me."

Dick did as she asked and vowed he would do whatever it took to keep on doing it.


	11. Through Chaos as it Swirls

**AN: Happy New Year! Here's the latest installment of PF. I'm so thrilled you all are enjoying it thus far. It makes me write even faster for you! Thank you to my lovely beta, Bondopoulos! She's saved you all from the attack of the commas! :) Enjoy! xo J **

**Addendum: if you're hate reading this fic, just go ahead and skip reviewing. You just make more work for me to have to go in and delete it.**

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><p>"What the fuck did you do that for? You—you—" A wheezing cough made the deep voice break off. The rattling, sickly sound made the suited man cringe.<p>

"Maybe you should stop smoking." The suited man said snidely. He was impeccably dressed and looked down at the man stretched out on the couch with disgust. The man in front of him was dirty and didn't give a damn; his apartment, expensive though it may be, was covered with the detritus of at least three weeks worth of garbage, some of which had started to rot.

The suited man stood taller and checked his spotless jacket and cufflinks. "You know why I did it. Make your demand. He'll pay. He likes her."

"Fuck—fuck—" a coughing fit took over the reclining man once more. The suited man rolled his eyes and walked into the kitchen, stepping over piles of empty pizza boxes on his way to the refrigerator. He opened the door to find various drugs chilling inside. He pulled himself up to his full height and, ignoring the drugs, reached to the back of the fridge for a bottle of water.

The suited man then walked back over to the hunched-over man and threw the bottle of water onto the tatty couch beside him.

The sickly man grabbed at the water bottle, opened it quickly, took two small sips, paused to catch his breath and then sipped again. "You'll stick to the plan the way it is," the derelict man said, his voice was barely audible. "We've already had enough deviations as it is. That stupid girl wasn't supposed to be killed."

"She was stealing money."

"There is no honor amongst thieves."

"That's pithy coming from a man who made his fortune preying on others. But this isn't your show; you're not in charge."

"I am in charge!" The man on the couch jolted forward, as if he was going to stand, but thought the better of it. "I'm the one who decided to do this. You're the hired help. No one else is to be hurt. You—you leave that girl alone."

"She works for Veronica Mars and she is resourceful. She found our money trail. She knows the score. She needs to be dealt with."

"No one else dies," the man on the couch wheezed before a fit of coughing took him over. "You're to do as you're told. Leave them alone. Remember your place – the help."

The suited man laughed. "The hired help who did all your dirty work. Don't forget that. You hired a drug dealer and a vapid bimbo to help carry out a plan that they never would've succeeded with if it hadn't been for me. We're in a bind. The plan has changed. Your son is not quite as stupid as you think he is."

—

It was another fifteen minutes before Veronica returned to Mac's room. During that time, Mac had pulled Dick into another series of dizzying kisses that left them both gasping for breath.

"So not the time to do this," Dick muttered, brushing his lips across hers with a bit of finality.

"Why not?" Mac smiled up into his face, her expression a little bit dreamy. Dick knew that if she could see herself in that moment she'd probably be annoyed. The thought made him smile.

"Because we're in a hospital, and you should be resting. Where is Ronnie anyway?"

"Trying to get rid of me so soon?" Mac sighed and shook her head. "Should've known that wouldn't take long for you to be dissatisfied."

Dick gave Mac a look that made her cheeks bloom with color. "Sorry, Mac, but you're not getting rid of me anytime soon. Believe me when I say that _it_ will take a very, very long time, and I will ensure that we are both fully satisfied."

Mac ducked her head, suddenly self-conscious. As her blush grew, the beeping of heart rate monitor she was attached to picked up speed.

Dick laughed, genuinely and loudly, as he turned his head to look at the monitor. "Don't be embarrassed." He grabbed her hand and placed it on his chest over his heart. It was beating just as wildly as her own. The realization of how much she affected him made her lift her head and smile shyly at him.

Dick sighed and set her hand back on the bed. She was incredibly dangerous to his current state of mind and being.

"Howdy," Veronica said, startling the two other occupants in the room. Dick and Mac turned to look at her, realizing for the first time that she wasn't alone. A harried looking nurse stood just behind Veronica, shifting from one foot to the other, an anxious look on her face.

"This lovely nurse here," Veronica turned her gaze to the nurse and gave her best winning smile, "says that your doctor should be by in the next twenty minutes or so to see if you're able to be discharged. Do you need anything while she's here?"

Mac wrinkled her forehead and shook her head, wondering what Veronica was up to. "No, I'm good. I just want to get out of here. Oh! You wouldn't happen to know what happened to my clothes? I had them before I got the CT scan, but they don't seem to have made the trip back up with me."

"I'll go and check right now, Mrs. Casablancas. Don't worry!" The nurse turned quickly and beat a fast retreat.

Dick's breath caught at her parting words. Mac's eyes grew wide and a little unfocused. Veronica took in their expressions with utmost glee.

"Uh," Mac began gingerly, "apparently I missed something?"

"Don't you worry about it, Mac," Veronica's grin grew to the dangerous place that had a number of people in her debt. "Just had to have a little chat with the nurses and let them know, in no uncertain terms, what would happen if you didn't make it out of here in a timely manner. I may or may not have fabricated some details along the way to speed up the process."

"Oh," Mac sat back and nodded. It would do no good to question Veronica's methods any further.

Dick shook his head and turned to face Mac. "Don't worry about it, Mac. It's just Ronnie being Ronnie." Dick sat back in the chair beside Mac's bed and tried not to dwell on the fact he loved the way the nurse had referred to Mac.

"We need to get you some form of transportation, Dick. That means we've got to go to your house and pick up another car."

Dick nodded. "We'll all go together. I'm not leaving Mac, and we all know you can't be left unattended too long without getting into trouble."

Veronica gave Dick the one-finger salute with one hand while she reached into her bag with the other. "I'm calling Weevil to have him meet us at your place."

"Uh, what the fuck for?"

"Brake fluid was leaking from your truck. Not just a little, a lot. My dad thinks the brake line was cut. Your truck was taken by Balboa County's finest to the evidence yard, and I don't know how easy it'll be to get inside the yard so that we can check it out for ourselves. I would like to have someone who knows way more about cars than I do come out and take a look at your remaining vehicles, and that person is Weevil. Does that sound alright by you?" Veronica explained with barely a hint of patience in her tone.

Dick nodded. "That's a good idea Ronnie."

Veronica gave him a waning smile before turning her attention back to Mac, phone still in hand. "Are you hungry? Do need anything?"

"Nope, I'm alright."

"Maybe something to eat?" Dick squeezed Mac's hand gently. "I read somewhere that sometimes food can help with shock or whatever."

"I don't think I'm still in shock, Dick."

"Right," he rubbed nervously at the back of his neck, "but, you were and you know…adrenaline and what not. Just let Ronnie bring you something to eat."

Veronica winged an eyebrow but nodded as she exited the room to find food and call Weevil.

Mac squeezed Dick's hand to gain his full attention. "I'm alright."

Dick took a deep breath and let it out slowly. "This isn't over, Mac. This whole thing just went from bad to worse. What if something else happens? I can't handle—"

"I know. We'll be careful. We'll all be careful. I promise."

—

A knock sounded at the door of Heather's hotel room, making her jump slightly. It took a second for her to remember that she'd ordered room service.

She paused the movie she was watching. She had ordered it figuring that pay-per-view and the most expensive thing on the menu was the least that Dick could do after the amount of trouble he'd caused her family. She knew it wasn't fair to place all the blame at his feet, but she was hurt. Her sister was gone and never coming back.

Heather quickly grabbed her wallet and threw open the door without looking through the peephole. A uniformed staff member smiled winningly at her as he entered the room, his pushcart laden with various food items.

"Ms. Button," he said succinctly, placing the cart in front of the coffee table.

"Thank you," Heather smiled, handed him a couple of dollars and locked the door behind him when he left. She sighed contentedly as she raised the silver dome that rested over her twenty-one-dollar hamburger and french fries.

"Only in Neptune," she muttered to herself as she picked up the mini ketchup bottle.

A few minutes later another knock came at the door. Thinking nothing of it, she opened the door again without looking, reasoning that it was likely another hotel staff member. When the door swung open a face that looked somewhat familiar to her appeared in front of her.

"Yes?" she asked quietly as the man pushed passed her and into her room.

"Excuse me! Who the hell are you? You need to get out of my room before I call security."

The man shook his head and looked balefully around the room. He walked over to her half finished meal and picked up a steak fry, biting off half of it before tossing the rest back onto the plate.

"I wouldn't pick up that phone if I were you. No need to fret. I was a…friend of your sister."

Heather felt a chill go through her at the man's voice. It wasn't the timbre as much as the message he was sending.

"If you were a friend of my sister, then you know she's dead."

He exaggeratedly turned his face into a frown. "Pity. Such a young and wonderful thing she was, but her nasty little habit was bound to catch up with her one day."

Melinda clenched her jaw and felt her eyes flood with tears that she refused to let fall. "What do you want?"

"I want my money." The man said with authority, though his hands shook slightly. Heather watched him carefully as he approached her. She turned and saw that her room door was still open and quickly weighed her options.

"Don't do it, Heather. The outcome will be messy for the both of us, and I have absolutely no desire to run after you. Don't make a scene."

Heather panicked. She didn't have anything with her or near her: no car keys, no wallet, no shoes on—how far could she possibly get?

"Heather," the man said, his voice intent. "You don't need to be afraid of me. Just do what I say and you'll never have to hear from me again."

Heather stood, rooted to the spot, as the man drew a step closer.

"Not only did your sister owe me money, but she also took money that didn't belong to her. Now there are some very bad people out to hurt me. I need that money, and I need it now."

Heather shook her head. "I don't have any money."

"Then how are you paying for this room?"

"Who are you?" Heather spat back. "Who are you and how did you find me?"

"Neither one of those things are relevant. I have my ways. You need to get me my money by the week's end, or you'll meet the same end as your sister."

"Fine," Heather said full of bravado. "But if you kill me you still won't get your money. And who's to say that I won't go to the police as soon as you leave? You can't threaten me and think you'll get away with it."

The man laughed, but it was completely devoid of humor. "We don't have police here, we have a Sheriff's department—an inept and corrupt one to boot. Don't be stupid, Heather. I'm not a man to be trifled with. You'll do as I tell you to do, or you'll regret it."

In that moment Heather decided that she didn't care about any of the things that were in her room; she turned and sprinted down the hallway as fast as she could.

—

"Yo, V," Weevil's voice rang out as Veronica stepped out of the BMW. She looked around Dick's charred yard and grimaced. The drought condition had only made the place look worse. The sickly sweet smell of burned roses and azaleas lingered as she drew nearer to the house.

"Weevs," Veronica smirked as he rolled his eyes. "Thanks for meeting us."

Weevil nodded and turned toward where Dick was trying to assist Mac out of the BMW. He chuckled, watching Mac persistently batting Dick's hands away. She had refused the crutches given to her at the hospital, but Dick made her take them any way. Weevil turned to Veronica and winged an eyebrow.

"Don't ask," Veronica said as she tossed a flippant hand in their direction. "It's complicated."

"It always is with you. What do you need? I don't want to get jumped by any white folks in polos over here."

Veronica rolled her eyes and walked around to the back of Dick's house toward the garage. She punched in a code on the outside box, not waiting for Mac or Dick to catch up with her.

"Uh, Ronnie?" Dick questioned as he made his way around the side of the house. He had finally given up trying making Mac use the crutches and had one arm wrapped firmly around her. Apparently she'd stopped protesting when Dick decided to act as her literal human crutch.

"How'd you—"

"I spent a lot of time over here at one point, Dick. Remember? Plus, how are you still surprised that I know these things?"

Dick shrugged one shoulder before he looked down at Mac who was laughing up at him. "It's not very nice to laugh at the person who's helping you walk, you know."

Mac smiled and tugged at his shirt encouraging him to lower his face toward her. She gave him a chaste kiss before turning her attention back to their companions. Weevil meticulously began inspecting Dick's two remaining vehicles.

Mac's mind began to wander. She was exhausted. They had spent another two hours in the hospital before she was finally discharged. During that time, Veronica had drifted in and out of the room with various food items and cups of coffee, tactfully ignoring the kisses she'd witnessed between Mac and Dick.

Two Balboa County Sheriff's Deputies, whom they'd never met before, had subjected Mac to an hour of asinine questions. The questions ranged from pointless to absolutely ridiculous. By the end of the questioning neither Mac nor Dick were confident in the competency level of the Sheriff's department.

"…lines were cut. At least that's what Dad thinks. Up for a little B and E?" Veronica's voice brought Mac's consciousness back into the present.

"You are a crazy woman, V. You do know I'm still under suspicion by our esteemed Sheriff, right? Do you think getting caught in the yard will help that out?"

"I don't plan on getting caught, Eli. Come on. Where's your sense of adventure?"

"Long buried under my self-preservation and desire to see my daughter grow up."

Veronica frowned and titled her head at him. Weevil rolled his eyes before sliding onto his belly to look under both the five series BMW and Tesla Roadster.

"No breaking and entering, Veronica," Dick said firmly as he guided a hobbling Mac toward a rather comfy couch in the corner of his garage. "That directly flies in the face of 'let's not do anything rash and/or stupid'."

"Wasn't asking you, Dick."

"Too bad, Ronica. I'm not above tattling to both your father and Logan."

Weevil laughed at the exchange, but abruptly stopped when he caught Veronica's glare from the corner of her eye.

"Do you want to figure this out?"

"Yes," Dick exclaimed, "but, I'd rather not have to post bail again for anyone and I would really like to make it through the rest of this debacle with everyone injury free. Is that really too much to ask?"

Veronica sighed before asking Dick for the keys to both vehicles. Dick handed them over and sat down beside Mac on the too comfy couch.

"Why's there a couch in your garage?" Mac inquired as she settled further into it. Her back and neck still ached, but she let herself settle a little further.

"It's the good and baked couch." Dick answered.

Mac looked up and him before it dawned on her. "Gross."

Dick shrugged. "I haven't used it in a while."

Mac gave him a doleful look but said nothing. He grabbed her hand and laced their fingers together.

"When Carrie was alive," he began, "her crowd—Gia, Luke, Sean, Cobb—they used to come over and, well…" He rubbed nervously at the back of his neck. "I never did any of the hard stuff, not really. I mean, when I was younger and stupid and grieving I did, but it just fucked me over. The last time I ever did anything really heavy, I guess, was on the boat that night."

"The night Susan overdosed?"

Dick nodded and squeezed her fingers tighter before opening up their closed hands to trace the lines of her much smaller hands.

"Yeah, it wasn't too longer after…after we…I mean you and I…" he trailed off but Mac understood. "I wasn't in a good place. I mean, I got wasted enough to black out and completely miss Gia, Luke and Carrie dump Susan's body." A shudder racked his body and he closed his eyes, hoping to shut out the pain.

Dick wasn't an incredibly introspective individual, and this situation threw into sharp contrast many, if not all, of his life decisions.

"Hey," Mac whispered, bringing her other hand to trace his chin. "What they did is not your fault. They had a choice. And they made a bad one. A really bad one. One that, in the end, cost them so much more than it would have if they had just told the truth. They used you in their plot, Dick. I hope you're not grieving for them."

Dick stared at her for a bit. "How can I not grieve for them? Carrie and Gia lost their lives over stupid shit that we did. Cobb's going to spend the rest of his life in jail, and good riddance. But Luke? I mean, shit. I don't even know how to feel about that guy. He helped Gia frame Logan. I was friends with these people who pointed the finger at the only person who gave a damn about me after Cassidy…"

He let his voice trail away. "I'm so sorry. I'm sorry for everything I had a part in. I'm sorry that these terrible people almost made me lose the one real friend that I've ever had. I'm just sorry. God, how does Logan not hate me?"

"Because you're all the family he has, too, Dick," Mac turned his face toward her. "You and Veronica really stood by him through all the Carrie mess. When everyone else turned their backs, you were there. That means something Dick. You need to cut yourself some slack."

He scoffed. "Fuck no. That's the last thing I need to do. Fucking grow up is what I've needed to do for the past ten years or so."

Mac tenderly caressed the side of his face, not really knowing what to say to all that he told her.

"Have I scared you away yet?" Dick asked quietly, reaching up to remove her hand from his face. He placed light kisses on her finger tips before bringing their hands down to rest in his lap.

Mac shook her head. "No."

Dick nodded and waited. _Say something else, you idiot,_ he berated himself. He simply sighed and turned his attention toward Veronica and Weevil, who'd just closed the hood of his BMW.

"Everything looks fine, V." Weevil said, tapping the hood twice. "You don't need to worry about these two, at least not from a mechanical stand point."

Veronica nodded and smiled winningly at him. Weevil groaned and shook his head. "Uh uh, not gonna happen, V. Like surfer dude over here, I'm not above going to your father about your plan. It's stupid."

"None of my plans are stupid," Veronica replied hotly.

"Then it's reckless. And I don't do reckless no more."

"So riding a motorcycle with your old friends is…what?"

Weevil shrugged but said nothing else. Veronica stamped her foot and turned toward where Mac and Dick were cozily watching the two of them. "All the men in my life are going to be the death of Mars Investigations."

"Doubtful," Weevil chimed in. "With the idiot Sheriff and keystone cops at his service, you're sure to be in business for a while; but only if you stay alive long enough to do so."

Veronica closed her eyes and counted to ten. She turned to Dick and raised her hands. "Which car you taking?"

"The Beemer," Dick said rising from the couch with difficulty. He took the key fob from his hand before nodding to Weevil. "Thanks man."

"I didn't do it for you. I did it for the two of them," Weevil nodded towards Veronica and Mac. "They've both been good to me. I don't want to see anything happen to them. You? Well, that remains to be seen."

Weevil nodded again to Veronica and Mac before making his ways back up the drive to his bike.

"Charming friends you have, Ronnie." Dick grimaced, turning toward Mac. "Let's get you up and back to your apartment so you can rest."

"No rest," Mac spoke as she attempted to rock herself off the couch using only he good leg. "Too much to do."

"No," Veronica said firmly walking over to help Mac up. "You need to rest. You didn't have a concussion, but the last thing you need to do today is sit in front of a computer screen. Rest, Mac. Please."

The concern that laced Veronica's voice didn't surprise Mac, but it annoyed her a little. Just like Veronica, Mac didn't take very well to being told what to do.

"Yeah, it's annoying isn't it?" Veronica smirked.

"Are you a mind reader now, too?"

Veronica laughed a little and assisted Mac as she hobbled over to the passenger's side door of Dick's five series. She slid into the car, her hands sliding over plush dove-gray leather that smelled of sandalwood and citrus. An odd combination, heady, but comfortable too.

"I don't want to see you until late tomorrow. I'm going to get my dad to help me with some stuff." Veronica held up a hand as Mac began to protest. "Seriously, Mac. Please rest."

"Don't worry, Ronnie," Dick broke in as he opened the back door and slid Mac's crutches onto the seat. "I'll make sure she doesn't sit in front of the computer for a while and actually rests."

Veronica looked skeptical, but nodded. "Good." She slammed the door and walked back out of the garage.

—

The ride to Mac's apartment was spent in amicable silence. Dick held onto her hand tightly over the middle console as if she were his touchstone and he would leave this place if he didn't cling to her.

"Are you hungry? Want me to stop somewhere and pick something up? You need to eat something in order to take your pain pills. Don't think I haven't noticed you wincing."

Mac shook her head. "There's some stuff in the freezer we can heat up. I don't feel like going anywhere except to bed."

"That's an excellent proposition." He leered playfully at her.

She pushed lightly at his shoulder, but couldn't stop the grin that formed on her face. This Dick she could handle. This Dick: the flirty, over the top, live life to the fullest Dick, was one she was familiar with.

"Don't get any ideas, buckaroo. I may be a number of things, but easy isn't one of them."

"I've never once thought of you as easy, Cindy Mackenzie. Trust me."

"I do," Mac whispered.

Dick sucked in a breath and quickly turned his head to glance at her. Her words carried a lot more weight than just the silly moment between the two of them and they both knew it.

Mac grumbled, gently, about Dick's doting care when they arrived at her apartment.

"I'm not an invalid, Richard," Mac groused quietly as Dick leaned helped her out of the BMW. She wore a mixture of things; her clothes from before still held fragments of glass and dirt and were a little worse for wear. She'd been gifted an overlarge sweatshirt from Veronica that she'd found in Logan's trunk (did she have a whole wardrobe in there?) and a pair of clean scrub pants from the hospital. They were so large that she'd had to roll them about five times to make them stay up. The whole outfit made her look incredibly young and fragile.

Dick ignored her grumbling; he leaned her against the side of the car so that he could pull out her bag of belongings and crutches. "Are you going to use the crutches?"

Mac rolled her eyes. "No, Dick. I don't need them. I can put a little weight on my foot."

"No, you're not supposed to. The doctor said to take it easy for the next few days. If you're not going to use the crutches, you get your own personal Dick to help you out."

"Gross," Mac returned without heat, a smile threatening to make its way to her face.

Mac wrapped an arm around Dick's waist and sucked in a breath as Dick's fingertips brushed her hip beneath the large sweatshirt. It wasn't a sexual touch, it was barely a flutter of fingers, but it lit her up and made her stomach clench in anticipation.

The trek to her apartment was slow and full of whispered words that made Mac chuckle and pinch lightly at his side.

"Let's never do that again, alright?" Mac groaned as she flopped on to the couch.

"Which part?" Dick sat beside her and turned her so that her legs draped over his lap.

"Any of it." Mac closed her eyes and let a smile cover her face as she felt Dick remove the one boot she hand on. He removed her sock and gently pressed his fingers into the ball of her uninjured foot, eliciting a groan that made his heart race.

"Do you want me to find something for us to eat?" Dick asked, momentarily pausing his ministrations. Mac relaxed back into the arm of the couch, her breathing steady and even; Dick thought he could easily get used to the sight.

"No," Mac whispered. "I'm really alright; but you can keep doing what you're doing."

Dick chuckled lightly and continued to rub her good foot. "You need to eat, Mackenzie. I saw you struggling with your foot. If you don't take a pain pill tonight, you'll regret it tomorrow."

Mac sighed and titled her head up to level a look at him. Dick smiled back winningly.

"Fine," Mac started to move, but Dick stopped her.

"I'll go, you rest."

Mac let herself settle back into the couch and listened as Dick rummaged through her kitchen. She closed her eyes and fell into a light sleep before she even realized it.

"Mac," the gentle hand at her shoulder shook lightly, but still caused her to jump.

"Sorry," Dick said as he knelt beside the couch, a steaming bowl of macaroni and cheese in his hands. "I found this soy cheesy mac in your freezer. I figured comfort food would be alright."

He handed her the bowl that was cushioned by a pot trivet due to the heat. She pulled herself upright to take the bowl from him, grabbing his hand before he left.

"Thank you, Dick."

He shrugged. "No sweat."

"No, really. Thank you for everything. I really appreciate your help and everything that you've done for me."

Dick ducked his head, ready to tell her that it was because of him that she was even in this mess in the first place. All rational thought left him when he felt her hand on his cheek. She smiled sweetly at him and brought her face to his to kiss him, gently, reverently.

The kiss lasted longer than the others, but wasn't hurried. It was full of unspoken things: memories, pain, regret; but the strongest feeling was desire.

Dick was the first to pull away, leaning his forehead against her own and listening to her hurried breathing.

"Eat," he commanded gently as he got up to go back into the kitchen to retrieve his own meal.

Mac slumped back into her spot in the couch, annoyed and filled with lust.


End file.
